March Celebration

March celebrations:

1. Paid $1200 towards debt.

2. started keeping an everything journal (daily journal with notes, reminders, to-do lists, budget, etc.)

3. half of my adult students that I teach in the evenings scored 12-17 points higher on the posttest this week, and I successfully ended another semester of teaching.

4. started cooking at home (tonight's meal was vegetarian Cornflake Loaf, Grandma's greens (I made them with Grandma's recipe), homemade cornbread, and cranberry sauce)



April goals:
1. create educational items to sell online

now paying rent

When I went to live with Aunt and Uncle Theo, I prayed that I would be a blessing while I was there. I hoped that my rent would help them out financially and that I would be a pleasant person to live with.

Now that I’m with Jasmine and Mr. Jasmine, I hope for the same. I’m learning that Mr. Jasmine has some financial difficulties. Jasmine is so caring; she is willing to help him if he will let him in, but men (more than women) can be so closed (or stubborn) sometimes. 

I’m all too familiar with the stresses that he is having according to what Jasmine has described – the bills, phone calls, avoidance, tough decisions, having to cut loose projects and possessions that we love. However, having a multitude of counselors has made it easier and less lonely. I pray that he goes to the Michelle Singletary classes I invited him to (which I now attend each month when possible).

Jasmine asked if I could contribute a small amount to the household because her husband is under so much financial weight and it must be hard to have several working adults in the house and he's paying almost all the bills alone. I gladly agreed to pay more than she asked. 

Even though I'm renting, I'm still making sacrifices for a better life. I'm working at a job that has long hours, working a part time job, renting a room, living without my Jefferson, and using cash stuffed in envelopes for everyday purchases. 

I know (and she has mentioned) that they will need this room I'm renting back in the summer because her mother-in-law visits almost every summer. That's fine. I'm prepared to move out at any time, but I can't stay in my car during the summer. It will be too hot. I have 3 options: 

1. rent an apartment (I think I could stay in an apartment in a less desirable part of town for just the summer). 

2. rent a room

3. go down South and stay with relatives for the summer (especially if I don't plan to teach summer school up here). 

This situation is also why I still keep up this blog called the Homeless Teacher. Although I've been in this room for 3 months, I knew it probably wasn't long term. 

Revamping the envelopes

I'm still learning to use the envelope system. I had 6 envelopes, but now I have 8. I had to add more categories. So right now they are:

1. food
2. gas
3. hair
4. toiletries
5. car maintenance
6. household supplies
7. work supplies
8. fun

I didn't list any amounts because many of them change monthly as I adjust and tweak this system.

However, I've found when you commit to paying off debt and being a better steward of money, it doesn't matter so much that you stick with hard and fast rules and systems as much as it matters that you keep moving toward the goal.

For instance, I haven't stuck hard and fast to the envelope system like it SHOULD be done. Most of the time if I run out of food money or realize I needed something that I didn't have an envelope for, I would just borrow from some other envelope. Not the way financial experts recommend you do it, but it did accomplish one big thing - I still refrained from using my debit card and was forced to survive only on the money that was in the envelopes. I thought twice before making purchases.

I keep reading comments from people who insist that you must pay off the higher interest rate loans first - any other way is just dumb. Actually, if you pay off your debts PERIOD, regardless of the order, you have accomplished what you came here to do. It's actually hard to miss the mark if you simply keep moving towards the goal, even if your moving includes missteps.

Snow Days

I wish I could see into the future. School is closed tomorrow due to snow and may be closed on Tuesday. If I had known, I would have travelled down South to be with Daddy and not taken any time off work. Well, since I’m here, I’ll use the time wisely. I prepared for upcoming lessons while treating myself to Ledo’s – my reward for paying off TWO credit cards this month. Yay, God!

1 Samuel 15:22.

Do you think all God wants are sacrifices— empty rituals just for show?
He wants you to listen to him!
Plain listening is the thing, not staging a lavish religious production.
Not doing what God tells you is far worse than fooling around in the occult.
Getting self-important around God is far worse than making deals with your dead ancestors.
Because you said No to God’s command, he says No to your kingship.

I believe that God is blessing me financially since I’ve started wisely managing all of his money and not just thinking that giving tithes and offerings was honoring Him.






"God will allow us, if we insist, to live in a prison of our own making."


http://www.gbcdecatur.org/sermons/WhereAreTheNinety.html

Daddy had a stroke

Daddy had a stroke this week. I'm going to price plane tickets today and decide if I want to go visit right now or wait.

He is talking and moving, but needs therapy and will start that over the weekend.

I'm so thankful it wasn't worse. I hope he starts taking better care of his health. I love my daddy (and mommy, too).

My sister has had two financial blessings this month, and because of those, she will have fewer debts and greater income in the next few months. Therefore, she texted me to see if I needed financial help making a trip down South to see my dad. I am so blessed to have the family I have. We really look out for one another.

I told her about Dave Ramsey's and Michelle Singletary's advice and how God has been blessing me due to my better stewardship (and because God just loves blessing people like that). So, fortunately, the emergency fund is enough to make at least 3 round trips down South and rent a car when I get there.

February Celebrations

Here is what I have to celebrate this month:

1. shared with other people how God blessed me when I started managing his money better
2. paid off 2 credit cards
3. Kept 2K in emergency fund
4. Kept up new habits – envelope system, naming my dollars, not touching emergency savings
5. started a new job and gotten 80% settled in

Goals for March:

1. make plans with Mama on house renovations
2. learn how to do my own hair to save money
3. keep God’s car clean and smelling fresh
4. be on time for work each day
5. eat healthy meals (not bits and pieces throughout the day)
6. reward myself with a Ledo’s day every $5K that is paid off or $1K that is saved in long-term savings fund

Rolling the Debt Snowball Again

I’m still living with Jasmine. I have to park my car in the backyard because I don’t have city tags (my tags are for a neighboring state). Jasmine and her husband have been completely welcoming to me.

I started a new teaching job 3 weeks ago. It's 10 minutes from my house and I enjoy working there.

God continues to bless my decision to make smarter financial choices and to work for want I want. I was able to pay off one credit card today (that was hard because it felt so good to have money again, that I didn't want to let it go).

That payoff puts me back on track with my debt snowball (which was on hold since December when I got laid off).

I have been listening to a lot of sermons lately about stewardship and wise money management. I’m glad I got the idea to do that. I want to improve my Sabbath worship, but sometimes I don’t have interesting things to listen to, watch, or meditate on during Sabbath hours and I get bored. Since the topic of stewardship is really interesting to me right now, listening to and watching sermons about it fill up my Sabbath time when I’m not chilling with others.

Speaking of making wiser money choices, since I’m near a kitchen again (not my classroom kitchen), I need to start cooking more and eating less fast food and processed food. I’m going back to making a menu. This menu won’t be a daily menu. Instead it’ll have one lot for weekday breakfasts, one for weekday lunches, and one for weekday dinners. That’s easier than trying to take each day one day at a time. Then I’ll plan for Sunday and Sabbath separately.

I just finished “naming my dollars” for the next paycheck, which I’ll get in another 6 days. “Naming your dollars” is a Dave Ramsey concept which means telling your money where it’s going to go before or on payday. So, all money has a designated place to go and I don’t have any extra money. If I want extra money, I have to name it “blow money” – I can’t just spend money without thinking it through first. I have to decide where it’s going to go ahead of time. Dave says, “Tell your money where to go instead of wondering where it went.”

Here are some other financial concepts I've learned over time that have changed my way of thinking.

1. Get good advice. In multitude of counselors there is safety – be careful who you hang with. You’ll make the same income as them.

2. No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he didn’t have money.

3. Learn the language of debt elimination - debt snowball, pay yourself first, naming your dollars, spending plan, blow money, life happens fund, gazelle intensity, real emergency, crisis mode, envelope system, "no," weird is normal, rich, baby steps, sinking fund, 4 Walls, stress test)