Friday, February 25, 2011

Exhilarated.

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Today is a big day in the M household. 
Credit Card #2 is now under the $2,000 mark -  $1,860 to be exact. 

I want to jump! I want to sing! I want laugh and cry and we haven't even paid it off yet.
It's the realization that we really are going to conquer this debt and the feeling of relief is amazing.
We're changing our family tree step by step.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Over the Mountain.

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This past President's Day, I drove two states over to visit my grandmother. Why on a Monday? Because my 82 year old grandmother has a flea market spot and works Saturday and Sunday.

Yes - works.

Does she need to do it? Not really, but chooses to do it because she's healthy enough to do so.  Her mind is still faster than a caculator and it gives her something to do once a week that's out of the house.  The only problem is when her grandchildren try to visit her, we have to find a non-weekend day to do so which is hard. Kudos to Federal holidays.

So on Monday morning, I got up and drove over the mountains to take my grandmother out to lunch at Cracker Barrel. I have no idea why Cracker Barrel has become the place to go but she likes it and that's all that matters. As we order the same thing {chicken and dumplings, fried okra and hashbrown casserole...so good but oh the calories}, we talked about a gamet of things.  The main topic of converstaion was how her geneartion survived the Great Depression.  Born in 1928, she was young when the country went into finanical meltdown but she still remembers it. As a twin, she and my aunt Vivian were the youngest of five. My grandfather worked on the railroad system and was killed when they were two, leaving my grandmother to raise all the children on her own.  They lived in the "city" so they didn't have really any land to farm leaving them without the ability to support themeselves without grocery stores or merchants.  Basically...they were poorer than poor.

It's not a pretty table topic to discuss but one that I can learn from. My grandmother learned at a very early age the difference between a want and a need, something that I don't think I learned until I graduated college.  She learned how to stretch a dollar, not always buy new and to not to take a dollar for granted.  It was my grandmother who taught me to watch the computer at the cash register because humans make mistakes and things to ring up wrong. The list goes on and on.

The trip wasn't the cheapest to take {thanks rising gas prices} but one that I'm thankful to make.  I'm blessed that my grandmother is still around to keep teaching me things over the years as I'm always open to her advice. As the "Great Generation" slowly comes to past, I wish that there was a way to capture all of their finance advice as I'm sure it could help all future generations.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Cheap v. Frugal

Is there a difference between being cheap and being frugal?



My coworker and I were having this conversation and he personally feels that being called frugal is the same as being called cheap. I, on the other hand, tend to disagree as I feel cheap is a derogatory word and fugal is describing your ability to stretch money. Thoughts?

Monday, February 14, 2011

V Day

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Mr. M and I are planning on having a Debt Snowball inspired V-Day this year. Gift limit is $30 or less and we're eating dinner in.  When I think back to the hundreds {and hundreds} of dollars I have spend over the last 11 years on this holiday - I get sick to my stomach. A majority of what I spent {aka put on plastic} was out of "love" because I wanted to get him something nice whether it was clothing, something for the office, etc. Don't get the wrong idea - Mr. M rarely asks for anything - I'm just a fool that has always felt like I should spoil him.

Well, not this year...a book {purchased due to a great deal on Groupon} and a $10 gift card at local fast food place is all that I can give and I'm sure that it will be just fine.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Hardly working?

I saw this on The Blog is Mine and thought it was great.
I'm not sure that I spend 3 hours goofing off but I thought the facebook statisitc was interesting.


OnlineMBA.com
[Source: OnlineMBA.com]

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Friday, February 4, 2011

Future Planning.

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Mr. M and I have talked about our future plans which does include little ones. We both were lucky as our mothers were able to stay at home with us which is a practice that I would like to follow.  In efforts to make preparations for this, we sat down and looked at our budget.  Currently, there is no way for me be a stay at home mom and adequately provide for a child - we simply can not live off of Mr. M's income.

While initially this bummed me out, I am glad that we took a moment to do this now while I'm not pregnant giving us time to be proactive.  Now I'm looking for part time jobs that I can do from home or adjunct professor openings at our local colleges.  I know that you can never fully be financially prepared for a child unless...well...your Donald Trump but I would like us to try. My reasoning is that if you are told that you should have a medical exam before you become pregnant then why should you not take a hard look at your financials.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011