So far so good....

Remember this way back at the beginning of the year???

THE YEAR OF SIMPLICITY!!!!!
Keep things simply;

use what we have,

borrow what we need,

lend what others can use,

sell what is of value that we no longer want,

and give away all that we can that is just sitting around!

Well, this past weekend I did a garage sale with a friend of mine.... Selling off some things that we NO LONGER needed!
I Made $299.25

The kids all together made $23!

We SOLD some things that were just laying around.... Some bigger toys, but mostly kids books, some clothes, kitchen stuff, JUST STUFF!!!!

The last 2 hours of the sale on Saturday, we decided to give most things away for FREE! It was so fun to see the looks on peoples faces when we told them most stuff was just FREE!!!

NOW, I am not sure I will ever do a garage sale again... I mean the money is great, we plan on adding sides to a small trailer and a crazy looking bike rack to it also, for camping... with the money we made.... BUT I LOVE to give things away!!

AS FOR THE NOT BUYING NEW CLOTHES...

(except for underwear, socks, shoes, and my tank tops)

WE ARE ROCKING IT!!!

No clothes shopping for us! I do have a thrift store list that I plan on getting to in the next couple weeks... the boys need tank tops, and some more shorts... NOT sure what the girls need... and hubby needs more work jeans!

AND THE BEST NEWS...

We have stuck to our budget for almost 4 months now! YEAH!

We have paid off $3440 in debt ($1000 of that to a car we owe my hubby's brother for.) We have put over $2000 into an emergency fund (tax return made this possible!), and we are putting aside EXTRA MONEY from my husbands paychecks (he works commission....)

SO LETS SAY WE NEED $1000 each week to make budget.... and he makes $1123 for the week, we put $123 in savings.... then the following week he makes $925, then we PULL $75 from savings.... So far we are AHEAD... but slow times are coming... but by then hopefully that will be a bigger cushion!

We have even REFINANCED our house to a 15 yr loan... at a lower interest... and the payments only went up $250 a month... NOW TO SCRAP THAT TOGETHER EACH MONTH....LOL!

SO, like the title says....

SO FAR SO GOOD!!!! ALMOST 4 months into the year, and I don't even have a wanting to go shopping!!!! THIS FEELS SO GOOD!!!

THURSDAY CHALLENGE!!!!

Here is your first

THURSDAY CHALLENGE OF THE YEAR.....

MAKE A BUDGET ....

Yes, make a budget if you don't already have one!

You can make it easy, with just a few catagories...

Or you can make it more complex with many catagories....

I used to do ours very complex, but each month I was frusterated figuring out each catagory, breaking receipts down to put in each catagory and then throwing that month out the window because I was too frusterated!

SO now I go EASY....

A few catagories

Gas

Household

Food

BILLS (all bills added up go here)

Clothes

Out to eat

OTHER

(in the other catagory is things like: Kids sports, birthday gifts, parties, all those OTHER expenses that come up each month!)

I do ROLL OVER left over money in a NUMBERS ON PAPER sense!

Say I only spent $15 on clothing and our budget is $50....

The following month I have $85 in our budget for clothing!

Some people like to take the extra and put it twards debt reduction... that is also a very good idea! I just roll ours over because I keep everything so low... I have to.... We can go 2 months without needing anything in the clothing area, and then BOOM, we all need new socks, and 2 kids need new shoes, and hubby needs jeans, ETC.....

Thus the reason we ROLL OVER!

The best advice I heard about a budget was....

"MOST people do not go into debt buying little everyday things.... they go into debt with their BIG purchases, so make sure that if you budget anything... BUDGET THESE PURCHASES!"

OK, now grab a notebook, make some sort of budget and stick to it for the next few months.... DO NOT STRAY FROM IT.... TRY HARD TO NOT purchase anything you DIDN'T budget for..... After 3 months, if you didn't enjoy it, I give you permission to quit and go back to your old ways!

OH, I almost forgot.... Our family theme this year is.....

THE YEAR OF SIMPLICITY!!!!!

Keep things simply; use what we have, borrow what we need, lend what others can use, sell what is of value that we no longer want, and give away all that we can that is just sitting around!