Debt Free by 2012

Ok so I came up with a great new budget plan. Here's how it goes. STICK TO THE PLAN. We've been on a "budget" for over a year now. But we really haven't been on the budget. So I came up with a plan to stick to the budget. First of all it will be written (not like it wasn't before), but it will also be posted on the fridge. Meaning if you come over to my house any time in the next year, you will be able to see what we spend our money on. We are going to be couponing and cutting out everything that is unnecessary, like movies, and going out to dinner. We won't be going unless we have gift cards, which we do have a few of. I also have a few other ides, but they seem like a lot more work. So if simply posting it doesn't change things, then we'll go to plan B. Which is to cash all the allotted money we have for each category into an envelope and stick that to the fridge. When the cash is gone we are DONE spending. A little extreme I know, but extreme times call for extreme measures. The student loans are starting to add up. I'd like to spend extra money on things like trips and golfing rather than bills. I hate bills. I budgeted our spending based on a low paying month, then subtracting a few hundred just cause I'd rather have a little extra in the bank than not enough. Then I set up a solid pay schedule based on what we pay now, and the money that is GUARANTEED. I also just realized that I didn't count any of the money we will be getting from the 2 extra jobs we just picked up. The way I figured, we should be debt free (except the house) by tax season next year (not including extra money from extra jobs that might add a speed boost to this process). It's so close I can almost taste it. Now if only I can get the printer to work so I can get this process going. PS anyone with an iPhone should look into the APP Home Budget. The only thing it lacks is actually connecting to your bank account. All spendatures have to be entered manually, but I like this better. I tried using Mint for a while, but It always seemed to be a few days behind the bank account. Mint said I had money to spend, but the bank account didn't. Got myself into trouble more than a few times. Home Budget takes more discipline because you have to enter everything your self, but at least that way I pay attention and I know that things are correct.

Home sweet home, Easier said then done.

I played a guessing game with my friend yesterday. It became a little more intense last night. Here are your first set of options:
Closet
Basement
Dishwasher
Linoluem

And your second:
Has us stumped
Flooded
Ripped
In process

Can you guess which goes with which?

We'll go down the list one by one, with stories.

Closet: In process
This might be the only happy story. We moved into our house and all they had in the closet were these cheap, wiry little shelves for things to set and hang on. So lame, plus I have WAY more stuff than those would hold. Solution. I have a handy husband who happens to have worked in construction for a solid portion of his life. Can you say "Built Ins". Yep, that's what we (he) are doing. Two shelves that go from side to side, one set of 3 that goes down the middle, hanger rods up top, and wicked cool pants hangers on the bottom. One word: Awesome. When it gets done of course.

Basement: Flooded
So after finally hooking up our washer and dryer, I started a load. All seemed to be in good working order. It was late so I figured I'd go to bed and put everything in the dryer first thing in the morning. Typical. Until I got downstairs in the morning. Water. Everywhere. Awesome. Apparently the hoses from the water source to the washer hadn't connected right (the one was completely stripped of it's threads). I hurried and switched the water off looking at my partially flooded basement thinking, "Well lucky us the basement is COMPLETELY unfinished. Therefore nothing got ruined." Here was another project for my super handy husband. After sawing off the stripped part of the tubes, there was plenty left over to hook up the hoses and get it running flood free. YAY!

Dishwasher: Has us stumped
Still nothing. The washer works just fine. Except for the part about it getting no water at all. We reconnected a hose under the sink and turned the water on thinking this would be an easy fix. No. We were wrong. The hose actually went to the fridge (which I will talk about in my next story). So we still have no idea why the dishwasher is getting no water. Stumped.

Linoleum: Ripped
So I got home from work yesterday a little frustrated cause I know I still have a million things to do in my house, but half of them can't be done because the closets aren't done and we have no water to the dishwasher (looks like another little while of living out of bags and boxes and hand washing dishes, boo). Also my garage has become a temporary workshop, full of saw dusk, extra wood, and a random assortment of tools. No biggie, closet needs to be done. Whatever, walk past it into the kitchen. Again I find a huge puddle of water. Seriously? Didn't I just deal with flooding downstairs? Ugh. It's coming from under the fridge. Which means either the fridge is broken (crossed fingers and praying that's not the case) or the hose behind it that SHOULD be hooked to the fridge but isn't has begun leaking. After moving the fridge I discover I am lucky. Leaking hose. So I clean up all the water and put a small plastic tub under the hose to catch any leaking water, since I have no clue where the hose connects or where the shut-off for it is. Later that night we learn it is the one we thought went to the dishwasher. As I stand up to go change and move on to other mundane projects, I notice a hole. In my haste to move the fridge and clean the water I neglected to notice that I had torn a hole in the linoleum. Part of why I want tile or wood. Alas, it's not a huge hole. It's actually two small ones. One the size of a quarter and the other the size of a nickel.

Hopefully things will settle down a little. I mean if I keep coming home to floods and ripped linoleum I might just move into my car. No linoleum to rip and no washers to flood. Not really. But I would like my house to just calm itself a little. It's stressing me out.