Thrift-o-rama

Well, we just got power back at our house. The remains of Ike blew through here at 75 miles per hour plus Sunday night, and knocked out power to all of central Ohio. Even I was surprised. Our power just came on this morning.

I'm upset because I had just stocked the freezer with homemade pasta sauce from my garden, shredded fresh garden veggies, a whole lasagna I was planning to make later. Basically, my grocery budget and grocery challenge are blown this month because of this storm.

We had to drive 40 miles south to find an open restaurant yesterday, then we camped out at our sister's, who has power, for dinner. I have been living on bananas and peanut butter with crackers and water since Sunday. I'm over it.

It reminds me that I either need to get a generator OR I need to get a gas stove so I can still cook when the power is out.

I am conducting an unofficial survey. How do you use rewards programs to save money?

And if you do use them, do you use more than one at a time to save even more (i.e. use a grocery discount card, and pay with a rewards credit card?)

And, how do you decide what rewards cards, coupons and discount programs to use?

I posted earlier about my work-baby dilemma. (

http://thriftorama.savingadvice.com/2008/09/03/tired-of-24-h...)

Today was the first day my friend came over to watch the Bean for four hours. It was great. My friend and the Bean had fun together and I got ALOT of work done. We are doing it again next Wednesday.

I am paying her $10 an hour for four hours one day a week. Money well spent!

Yay! A small success. I got paid for my August freelance gig, so all of that money, $1050 is going to the Mexico vacation fund.

Hubby and I agreed that money from this project (it is long-term) will max out the vacation fund first, then be used 50-50 for savings and paying down the student loan. I already used $5,000 of it to max out my IRA for the year.

The vacation fund is up to $4,922.53. The goal is $6,000 by Feb. 2009.

This post by Monkey Mama got me thinking about anniversaries

http://monkeymama.savingadvice.com/2008/09/06/six-years-and-...

It's been about three years since the levees broke in New Orleans, forever changing our lives.

When it happened, we had a house with a $2,000 a month mortgage payment. This is the house:



We had some money in the bank, but didn't know if our house was even still standing or what if anything our insurance company would pay for. So we went to work. Literally.

First, let me say that Citibank, who bought our mortgage from our favorite local bank, gave us no relief from mortgage payments. Remember when Bush insisted that lenders give borrowers in New Orleans two to three months break from payments? Citigroup pretty much said screw you. I still hate them.

That said, as soon as the levees broke, our resumes went out. Hubby got a job right away, and I got a freelance gig writing for the local newspaper. Phew. Money to pay the mortgage. Now the real work began.

We moved into my sister's finished basement in Ohio for 6 months, paying $300 rent plus the gas bill and groceries.

Then, I set up an office and spent at least 5 hours a day every day on the phone trying to reach our insurance company and our adjuster. Adjusters kept quitting and each person I talked to in the claims department told me something different.

I also had to hire a contractor to fix the damage to my house so we could sell it. No easy task.

We had decided to stay in Ohio,and we couldn't really move on until we sold our house. Which meant we couldn't afford to wait 6 months or more for our insurance claim to be paid before we started fixing up our house.

I went to New Orleans in November of 2005 and spent 1 month fixing the house. I paid $18,000 out of pocket for everything from roof repair, fixing a balcony that was knocked off by a FEMA truck and rebuilding a concrete block privacy fence that was uprooted by a tree. I also did some "Designed to Sell" HGTV magic by painting the inside and outside of the house. And scrubbing everything to make it look fabulous.

Two contracts and some termites later, the house finally did sell, on my birthday. March 13. It was a miracle. And it came just in time. We had just got the new bill for our homeowners insurance. It had tripled, costing about $600 a month just for insurance. We wouldn't have been able to afford our house if we had stayed in New Orleans.

If we had lived paycheck to paycheck, we would have been so royally destroyed financially by this hurricane. We would have had to pay $2000 a month mortgage for a lot longer, and would have had to delay starting our lives over again while we waited for an insurance company to pay up. We would have missed the window of opportunity to sell our house. People were buying 6 months after the storm, when we were ready.

Here is the financial picture. We paid $225,000 for our house in June 2003. Sold it for $325,000 in March 2006. (Because it didn't flood, our house value went up a lot). We had $30,000 in equity already.
After real estate commissions, etc., we had $90,000 in cash free and clear to buy something in Ohio. Here is what we bought. Much more modest:



So we bought a 1957 ranch for $145,000. The experience of worrying about how to pay the mortgage after the storm, and our not so good experience with Citibank (having your mortgage sold to a company you did not choose to do business with) really changed our perspective.

We stretched to buy our first house, which is what the conventional wisdom is. It was a mistake. Too much house payment= too little freedom and to little wiggle room when something goes wrong. So we bought a more modest and cheaper more manageable house the second time.

My MIL didn't like it one bit. Many times she told me that we were supposed to always trade up, trading down wasn't the way it was supposed to work. She's never been through a disaster, and she and my FIL also live very different lives than me and the hubby want to. We agree to disagree.

Then, hubby and I set about finding a way to pay off the remaining $50,000.

When we finally got our insurance check for $18,000 (6 months after the storm!!), that all went to the mortgage. When we were both settled in to full-time jobs, we made the decision to liquidate $32,000 in stock in a taxable brokerage account to pay it off completely.

We ended up making one real mortgage payment. Then, we began depositing the amount we would have spent on a mortgage payment into the brokerage account to replace what we cashed out.

Some financial people would say that paying off the house isn't the right move. I disagree. There is a freedom and peace of mind that comes with owning your home outright. I remember my grandparents' mortgage burning party. We should all get back to that mindset. That a house is something to be paid off.

After we sold the Nola house, we set about really getting a hold of our financial lives. A natural disaster really drives home the need for savings. We had no idea that our paychecks would be gone virtually overnight. You can't live one paycheck away from financial insolvency. It's a recipe for bad things.

Many of our friends who didn't have money in the bank JUST finished their hurricane repairs. Three years later. One couple finished just in time for Gustav to come along. Thankfully it missed.

Having the house paid off has allowed us to not only sleep better at night, but also max out 401ks, IRAs, and Roth IRAs, every year, fully fund a 529 plan for the bean. And pay cash for all of the major home repairs to our new house.

It has allowed me to work as a freelancer instead of a full-timer so that we don't have to pay for daycare. It really has changed our life.

The current housing advice has it all wrong. Don't stretch. Find a modest house you can pay off ASAP, and find one you can fix up to make nicer. We really did buy the worst house in a good neighborhood, which means we are really improving the value with every project.

Thanks for listening to my ramblings. I get a little sappy every Katrinaversary.

I have really fallen off the bandwagon these past few months. My savings have basically ground to a screeching halt.

Part of it was expected, as I knew I would have to raid the savings account to pay for our new roof ($7200).

But there have been some other unexpected expenses.

For instance, this week we spent $1,000 for a back-up server. We needed the extra space to make sure our Gustav clients had their info backed up in case disaster struck. We will be reimbursed for this, but god only knows how long that will take, and in the meantime, I had to take $1,000 out of savings to cover the CC bill for it. Argh.

On top of that, I feel like we are spending a lot of money, but I don't even know on what. It just seems like bills are rolling in and the checking account is at the minimum.

Caveat: I had to buy gifts for two baby showers this month, and I still need to buy something for a wedding shower this Saturday. So many showers! And my husband decided to buy like 10 CDs without telling me (all used, but still) and to donate $150 to a presidential campaign (at least he's being an involved citizen!)
And I did spend $90 on mulch and peat moss for the gigantic garden beds I am currently digging.

I think I answered my own Q. This is where all the money is going!! Time to cut back.

I am currently trying to lower our grocery bill, but I don't think that's the problem.

I had also planned to do a stone wall around all of the new flowerbeds I am digging. I had budgeted $600 for stone. I may have to wait until spring.

I was doing so well meeting my savings goals. I don't want to end up missing the mark!

I'm officially 2 weeks through the first month of the grocery challenge. Goal, to reduce grocery bill and eating out by 25 percent, to $725 a month.

Two weeks to go. And EEK, we only have $244 left in the grocery budget. Eating out has really killed us this month.

Every time my mom babysat, we went out to eat as a date, plus throw in some restaurant breakfasts for hurricane evacuees, and then a MLS soccer game that cost us $34 in concessions, and well, you see how it adds up.

The good news. The challenge is kind of fun. It's given me something new to think about financially and it's made me focus more attention on what we're eating and whether or not it's good for us.

Tonight, I made two eggplant / spinach lasagnas, and I froze one for later. This week, I also froze 2 2-cup bags of zucchini (for bread, this winter) and made and froze 3 large bags of homemade spaghetti sauce from the roma tomatoes in my garden.

So, on the food front, all that is positive.

At the grocery today, I actually did pass up a decent meat sale, with steaks and pork chops deeply discounted. We're tyring to cut back on meat, and I still have 3 roasts in the freezer and a pack of chicken from BOGO sales. I figure we should eat those first.

It feels good to have a plan now, even if it only means having a babysitter 4 hours a week so I can do some freelance work. Already the ideas are flowing, and I am attempting to manage my time and accomplish little tasks so that I can make the most of my 4 hours.

My goal is to get 4 articles published by the end of the year. The money will be split 50-50, with half going to savings and half going to pay extra on my student loan. That should help me meet my goal of paying an extra $1,000 on my loans before year end.

Hubby and I also talked a bit about what we want to do with our lives. We agreed that in a few years when the bean is a little older, we'd like to live overseas for 6 months or a year, so we'll both start looking for jobs and see if anything comes up. It can't hurt to try, right?

Also, I'm thinking of rooting through the basement closet to see if there is anything I can list on eBay. I also have a vintage 1950s bathroom vanity and a 1953 O'Keefe and Merrit stove, which works and was in my last house, to sell. I was thinking of saving them for the yard sale next summer, but I would like to clear out the space.

Maybe I could either post them at a fixed price on eBay with pick up only, or on Craigslist. Although, I have had them on Craigslist and none of the people ever showed up to look at them.

That's the news.

My New Orleans friends left this morning. It was great to see them. We made beautiful meals at home, stayed up late talking. All that good stuff you do with friends.

It got me thinking about what me and hubby want to do with our lives. They are heading to France for a year. The wife has a fellowship to study 19th century French ghost stories and write a book about it. She is a published horror author, as well as an academic. The hubby is going along and making documentaries.

Ah, That's the life. So my hubby and I were talking about what we want our life to be. We wanted travel, adventure and excitement, and instead we have a baby and a 1957 ranch home. Which is great, don't get me wrong, but is there a way to inject some adventure into that??

I guess that's what we're going to have to figure out, and soon.

we are planning to visit this couple while they are in France. And hopefully do the Mexico trip all in one year.

I love the bean. He is a sweet kid. But frankly I am really tired of taking care of a kid 20 hours a day. It's mind numbing. The hubby helps out a lot.

I am just really tired because he still doesn't sleep and the sleep training is hit or miss.

But even though I am tired, I want to do work. I feel compelled to make more money and contribute more to the household.

I like my field, and I like making money, I find it fulfilling. So how do I make it work with a baby?

My mother works full time and can't babysit during business hours. I already import my MIL for weeks at a time when I have a huge project to do that requires a lot of hours. But those projects only happen 2 to 3 times a year.

I want to fill in the rest with some part time work, either from home (as a freelancer, which I did before the bean ) or at an office. The only problem with freelancing is I can't have him crying in the background while I am on the phone,and his nap times are so sporadic that it's near impossible to schedule calls when he is asleep.

Is there any way I can make it work? There is no part-time daycare here for babies Beaner's age. And I am not comfortable with full time. (Nor would it work financially)

I could possibly ask two friend to babysit once or twice a week, but I would be limited to the hours their children are in school. And how much should I pay them? I have no idea.

HELP!!!

I need to do something soon.

I spent $138 on groceries today, mostly so I have meals to cook for the New Orleans folks who are camping out here until Gustav is gone. They'll be here about a week. This is going to be a budget buster, but I feel like there isn't much I can do about it.

I am cooking a spinach eggplant lasagna, sweet corn from the farmer's market, and grilling chicken out on the grill. I also have fixins for a gourmet spinach salad.

I had never heard of this program until today. Basically, you donate extra produce from your garden to local food banks, who are happy to have fresh produce. What a great idea! I will definitely participate next year, and may even try to persuade the neighborhood association to go along with it!

http://www.gardenwriters.org/par/

Well, several adults, 3 cats and one dog are on their way to our house, evacuating Hurricane Gustav. We were expecting two more adults and a six-month-old baby, but they are hunkering down in Memphis instead.

I am sad for New Orleans, my former home, and sad for my friends who just finished all of their Katrina repairs. Here we go again.

Today I hugged the Bean and I told him how thankful I was that we were safe and happy and didn't have to evacuate and start all over again.

It was hard enough once. We didn't want to do it again. (FYI, I was driven out of Nola by Katrina and had to start life over again in Ohio, and spent 9 grueling months battling insurance companies and trying against all odds to sell our house.)

That said, I cleaned the house tonight, went to the farm market for some sweet corn today, and am about to go set up a queen size futon bed in the basement. Our basement is gigantic, all finished and the same size as the upstairs. This way, everyone will have their own bathroom and their own space and no one will have to listen to my Bean scream at night!

I pray it doesn't hit New Orleans again.

I won $5 in quarters at the Sweet Corn Fest last night. I was playing the game where you pick a color and if the ball lands on that color, you win. It's like I couldn't lose. $5 one quarter at a time, isn't easy! So, that's going to the tiki fund.

I have ambitious plans to beautify the outside of our house. Part of this is to eliminate grass,because I hate mowing, and since all of the full sun on our property is in the front, build beds large enough that I can secretly grow vegetables behind the flowers without raising the ire of the neighbors.

And then there's covering up those glamorous sink holes that showed up last year!
Here is the plan. The dark areas are the new beds. Now that the roof is finished, my goal is to dig the beds during the month of September. If all goes well, I will be able to buy stone and lay the stone retaining walls around the beds as well.

The dark parts of the diagram are the new flower beds. There should be enough room to plant some perennials for a butterfly garden, and then a hidden strawberry patch, herb garden, and watermelon patch, and some zucchini plants. From the street, all you will be able to see are flowers, if all goes according to plan.

It's like a stealth agriculture plan! I'm such an anarchist...

So far, the grocery challenge is going well. Of course, it's only been a week! but hey, baby steps, right?

Today I went to the grocery store. I bought ONLY what was on my list. And the list was basics. My total was $28.16.

Much better than the $60-70 I usually drop at the grocery.

Today I am making vegetarian chili so we have something quick, healthy, and easy to eat.

Removing that shelf from the fridge is also working. Now that we can see the food, it's actually getting eaten.

I never would have guessed taking away storage in the fridge would actually work out better. I guess it was the more is always better American attitude that was holding me back.

Also, I checked out a bunch of cookbooks from the library. I plan to photocopy the recipes I really like and put them in a plastic sleeve in a new binder. It will become my unofficial cookbook.

I have found an interesting recipe for veggie burgers that will solve two problems. First, using all of the darn zucchini from the garden and giving me a cheaper option than store-bought veggie burgers. They are about $5 a pack, which is way too much for 4 patties!

I got a notice from the county auditor this morning. My house is officially worth $5,000 less than I paid for it 2 and a half years ago. I guess, in a way, this is good, because this value means less I'll have to pay in property taxes.

But it still hurts a bit, especially considering we've put almost $25,000 in work into the house in that time. (All cash, thank you.)

A new roof, A geothermal heating and cooling system, new Marmoleum kitchen floor, new Energy Star windows. I guess I can't complain too much. Two of those projects have saved me a ton on my energy bills already.

Well, I took the plunge and bought a can of the generic Target bean formula. My mom talked me into it. It's $11 cheaper than what we use, per can, and has the same ingredients as Enfamil. I don't think twice about generics for myself, but for some reason I am uncomfortable with unbrand formula for baby bean. Maybe because his brain is growing so fast right now? Maybe because formula isn't regulated by the FDA. Not sure, but I am going to try it and see how it goes.

We put all of our expenses on the credit card. (Calm down,we pay it off every month.)

So, for the last two statements the average we spent on food was

Grocery: $567.30
Restaurants: $386.84

A total of $954 a month. For two people and a baby, and this doesn't include formula. This does include things like shampoo and TP, and it will continue to. I obviously need to spend less on those as well.

Jeepers. If we can't cut that down. We're out of control. I know we aren't eating it all, because I threw out a big bag of spoiled food last night!

So, goal number one is to reduce these amounts by 25 percent for the next two months. That means a total of

Groceries: $425.47 ($141.83 less)
Restaurants: $290.13 ($96.71 less)
Total food bill: $715.47 ($238.53 less)

The long-term goal is to cut those amounts by 50 percent, by December, for a total of
Groceries: $283.65
Restaurants: $193.42
Total food budget: $477.07

The first goal is to cook at home more, reducing restaurant expenses. The second is to reduce grocery expenses by cooking more from scratch and from shopping at Aldi's and other discounters, and by using sale flyers and coupons to plan menus. I should have been doing this already. I guess I didn't know how bad it had gotten.

I picked 12 pounds or roma tomatoes today and made them into sauce tonight. It was fantastic.

So good, it inspired me to clean out the fridge. I couldn't find a spot for the sauce leftovers.

When I threw away an entire grocery bag of spoiled food, I realized something had to change.

We spend A LOT on food. I don't even know how much. It's a category where we have no spending limits.

Well, that's going to change. We're obviously wasting a lot, and that is unacceptable, for many reasons.

So, I am going to institute a grocery challenge. I'm not sure exactly how it will work but I have a rough outline.

Step 1. Tally up how much we spend each month on dinners out and groceries.

Step 2. Reduce both of those amounts by 25 percent for Sept. and October, with the ultimate goal of reducing it to 50 percent of current spending within 6 months.

Step 3. A cook at home challenge. This may help accomplish step 2, and help us eat healthier. I have been wanting to make more home-cooked meals and have lately, but I can do better. I will start looking for healthy, possibly vegetarian cookbooks at the library.

Step 4. Plant a wonderful garden next spring. My plans were derailed this year due to being too pregnant to bend over. Hard to plant seedlings that way. I will focus on foods we eat often and items that we use that are expensive. Third, specialty varieties and items we can freeze for winter.

I do most of the grocery shopping, so I shouldn't need to enlist the hubby's help in this. Plus, he loves home-cooked food, so he'll be on board.

The money we save (compared to our current average monthly food expenditures) will go into our savings account, which frankly could use a boost because we just spent $7200 on a new roof.

Well, I had to buy a new operating system for my Mac so I can run my new Adobe CS3. It retails for $129. I shopped around and found the best price on Amazon.com. $109. Then, I used $5o worth of Gift cards I earned from my rewards credit card. Then, I took in all the loose change I have accumulated since January. It was $43 plus worth!

I just ordered the OS, got free shipping. I'm very happy. I was really upset when I thought I would have to spend $129!

Also, I met my second savings goal today: $2,000 into the hubby's Roth IRA. I am going to stop the auto drafts into that account and snowball the savings to the other goals. Once those are met, I will stash more in, hopefully by the end of the year.

She is the lady who got me to really like this site and yet I haven't seen a post or anything for months. Any of you know what's up?

This was her blog. Took a lot of work to find it!



http://pinchthatpenny.savingadvice.com/

Most of you know I have posted about my financially oblivious sister. Her money management skills leave much to be desired, to say the least. But 2 recent developments now have me thinking maybe, just MAYBE she has had a change of heart.

First, she joined a vanpool. So her commuting costs have gone from $300 a month to $9 a month. Yes. $9! What a deal!

And yesterday she sent me an email saying she called Time Warner to negotiate a lower price on her cable bill. When they said no, she actually cancelled and went with another company. So, she's saving $27 a month on that.

This is VERY out of character for her. But I hope it sticks.

Yay eBay. I finally made more than $5 profit on something. The 1950s prom dress was a decent seller. It feels good to add so much at one time.

I have also decided to pay for my computer OS upgrade with rewards certificates from Amazon (form my credit card. I have to wait another week for my $50 GC to come) and change I have lying around the house. I'm going to cash it in at a Coinstar machine for another Amazon GC. You don't pay fees if you turn your change into a gift certificate. This should get the cost of the software I need down to $50 or so...

It's been a bad day. I feel like my bank account is hemmoraghing money, and like the world is designed to get you coming and going.

I wrote earlier about the hot tub being a money pit. Sure, I accept responsibility for that. I will have repair visit No. 3 in the past month this week.

Then, when I went to install some very important new software on my mac, software I use to run all of my web businesses and multimedia and freelance graphic design, it turns out I need to buy a new operating system to run it on my computer. I bought my Mac 2 months before the new operating system came out,and the new software needs the new operating system. Ugh. I can't do anything without it, so that's another $130 out the door.

A friend is also in the hospital, at risk of having her baby 2 months early. She doesn't have anything for the baby yet. So, we're all running around trying to make sure she has the basics should the baby come out soon. We know her hubby will not have the time or energy to shop and set up a nursery. I don't mind that so much, but that is money out earlier than I expected.

I feel like I am swimming against the current. I guess everyone who's trying to save feels like that eventually, right?

I guess I'm not taking all of this in stride as I normally do, because I'm already feeling really down. I missed dad a lot today and the exhaustion of not sleeping and taking care of baby, and trying to keep my career together really got to me today.

Overall, I'm pretty thrifty. But the hubby and I decided to afford ourselves on luxury when we moved to Ohio-- a hot tub.

There isn't much to do in Ohio, so people have a lot of house parties. So, we figured, we'll invite lots of friends over and make margaritas, grill out, and sit in the hot tub.

It started out thrifty enough. we bought a used tub on Craigslist for $1,000. About $8,000 less than the same one new. It worked when we bought it. But something must have happened to it when we moved it because it hasn't worked since.

We've put $2800 into it so far in repairs and installed the electricity. It's just one thing after another. The repair guy came last week, a $432 bill, and yes, we fixed one problem, but the problem we had last summer when it went on the fritz is still there, so I have to convince the guy to come back for yet another god knows how expensive repair.

That hot tub is my albatross. After I filled it this weekend and it didn't work despite the latest repair, I was so mad I couldn't talk about it for days. Then I had to tell the hubby we wasted more money on it. He said call the guy, we're stuck with it, I want a working hot tub.

So here we are still, 18 months later, with a tub that doesn't work and eats money like it's at a buffet. It's frustrating. Something will definitely remember next time I think something that requires maintenance is a good idea....

I finally hired a roofer yesterday. I like them a lot (so far)!. For a while, I felt like I couldn't even give my money away. I've had 4 estimates. Of course, I called more roofers than that and many didn't even show up to do an estimate. I thought the housing downturn meant more contractors looking for work. I guess not!

Three weeks ago I had actually hired a roofer, the one recommended by my neighbor, and he never came by to pick up the deposit. Geesh. Is there something wrong with my cold hard cash?

I have two other projects that are on hold waiting for the roof, so my entire summer project list has been on hold. I keep promising the neighbors that yes, I do have a plan for making the front of the house presentable, nay, even look fabulous, but they are starting to not believe me!

I can't put my landscape plan into place until the roofers are done, because i can't have old shingles falling all over my flowerbeds.

Maybe this will get the show on the road.

This is what I have been working on. It is a set of Hula girl magnets.(This photo is only half of the set) They are very big, almost 8 inches tall, and hopefully will help me pad the tiki fund.

I made them out of vintage advertisements, I hand-laminated them, hand cut and hand magnetized them. It was a new project for me. It's fun.

I came up with what I think is a cool new project to raise money for the $20 challenge. I am going to try making a new craft item that I can sell, and which will put to good use my extensive (and I mean extensive) collection of vintage books, magazines, and advertisements.

I bought $17 worth of supplies today. That money will come out of the Google Adsense money I will be adding to the challenge at the end of the month.

I am not going to say what the project is yet, because I am not sure if it will turn out. But if it does, it will be great, I am sure!

Thanks to all of you for your great suggestions on how to make more money for the tiki fund. I appreciate your input.

The funny thing is, just concentrating on wanting to add more to the fund has really kicked me into high gear. I've spent a lot of time crafting and thinking of ways to make money this week. It's been very productive. I even got the ball rolling on some projects that had been on hold. Thanks for the inspiration, y'all!

I met with a friend last night for dinner. She, like me, has new baby and has started working part time as a freelancer to save on daycare. She was bemoaning how she and her husband are broke and can't make it on one salary alone. They also aren't saving anything for their baby's college.

They have credit card debt. Two SUVs and two SUV car payments. Mortgage, etc. student loans too.

I know for a fact that her husband makes just as much as mine.

She thinks my family making it on one salary must only be possible because we don't have a mortgage. (we don't have one because after a long grueling Hurricane Katrina recovery, we sold our house for enough profit to buy a house in Ohio , because it's much cheaper to live here).

Well, it isn't true. Even when we lived in New Orleans, and had an exorbitant $2,000 a month mortgage and made less money than we do now, we still saved and had no debt. In Ohio, if we hadn't paid it off, our mortgage would only be about $750 a month.

I'm telling you, it isn't the mortgage. It's the other things: the car notes, the credit card debt. We don't have that. And sure, it isn't easy all the time to live with one beat up 11 year old car for two people and a baby, but we do it, because we don't like debt.

And yes, I'd like to have cable television and maybe some fancy clothes every once in a while, but when it comes time to shop, it just doesn't seem as important as putting money away for bean's college.

It's all the choices you make. Not how much you earn. Even when I was young and broke working as a waitress in the French Quarter, I managed to eventually save $10,000 in a ceramic piggy bank in my apartment. It's choices!

With this friend, it's like it's falling on deaf ears.

I guess it frustrates me. You really have more control than you think you do.

We chose to live in a smaller house in a less expensive neighborhood than they chose, we choose not to have two car payments. Why can't anyone see that?

I rue the day they found out our house was paid for!