The Money Crunch

I do not really want to write this post, but it is relevant and something that is going on in our life, so I will write it.

Russ and I are in debt. We have been for some time, and have been making an effort to change that. We came super close to being debt free by the end of our deployment, but a cross-country move and switching from apartment-living to house-living caused our debt to rise once again.

Over the past six months we have been trying to be more cautious of our spending, and I have been doing things to save money where I can (like shopping at goodwill and using coupons on groceries). We have made some progress, but as we are looking at our accounts and tracking our spending…we aren’t making nearly as much progress as we should. I did some averages today of our different spending categories and came to the stark realization that we are still, simply put, living far beyond our means.

Thus, beginning March 1st, Russ and I are going on a strict budget. Something we should have done long ago, but it’s better to start now than not at all. This is going to mean some serious life-style changes for us, and we are both excited and nervous about it.

Here’s just a list of a few things we will be doing to save money:

• Shorter showers and fewer baths
• Keeping our heat lower
• Not buying clothes…we have plenty
• Eating out and buying coffee far less
• Not renting movies
• Spending less gas in traveling (like Russ not coming home after PT every day *sniff*)
• Eliminating “fluff” in our grocery bill by cutting out sweets (brownies, ice cream, etc)

Anyway, please pray for us that we will be able to maintain this budget and that our financial situation will improve. Pray also that this would not be something that pulls Russ and I apart. Right now, even though there are things we are both unhappy about sacrificing, we are united and agreed on everything. I am so thankful that we are able to support each other and be willing to make these changes for the good of our family.

Coming soon: baby updates and pictures of some baby things we have purchased recently. February has just been a very busy month for us!