When we started this blog, we intended to blog more regularly. But Roux and I have been quite busy lately. She has been swimming with dolphins and I have had three of my teeth stolen by an oral surgeon. However, we do plan on blogging more regularly over the summer. Now, on to my first official blog post.
I have always loved free stuff and saving money. I loved it even more once I was essentially on my own after college (thanks Mom and Dad for the help with insurance and cell phone). I had the typical college diet and regimen of Ramen and other cheap noodle products in both my undergrad and grad school years. Grad school also brought me back to looking through the grocery store ads (meal plans and on campus cafes got me through undergrad), something I had done a lot growing up since my dad religiously got the Sunday papers full ads, comics, and coupons. When I was a kid, I just looked at the pictures while I waited for my dad to finish reading Prince Valiant, but suddenly, when I was spending my own money, I actually read the ads. Buy one box of cereal, get one free?!? And all I have to do is get a loyalty card (I love Winn Dixie and their loyalty card program. Amazing)??? I’m in! I remember my first big savings trip. I bought strawberries, cereal, juice, bread, and crackers, all B1G1, and I saved $26 and spent around $26 at Harris Teeter, which we lovingly called The Teet. I was so proud and I told everyone about it, even if they didn’t care. And this was without coupons! So just imagine my delight when I realized I could combine coupons with weekly specials. Yes, I am a nerd, but I know it and accept it.
This brings us to my current situation. My dear Roux has always been cheap, er, rather frugal. She’s great at it. She rubbed off on me a smidgen over the past five years or so, but once I was back in town after graduation and a summer internship and two weeks in my parents’ basement, I knew I needed to live a lot cheaper. So I lived on Spaghettios and spiral macaroni and cheese (trust me, the spiral shape is soooo much better, it holds more of the cheese flavor in its crevices). For several months, as I job searched and tried to become a full fledged adult, this was my life. By December, I found and got a great job and became a full fledged young professional. I vowed to still live cheaply and through the miracle of the interweb, I rediscovered coupons. Now I am no where near some of the couponing pros out there, but I do well enough to save Biscuits and I a lot of money for other purposes. At the end of every month, I plan on doing a small post about my monthly savings using coupons and free samples (provided by Roux).
So what do we do with all that money we save? Well we set up a goal for ourselves. Now I have never been a person to set up concrete goals for myself. I think I always knew some of my big goals like go to school, get a degree, find a job, etc. But I never came up with one with a strict deadline or anything. Flash forward to April. Biscuits and I decided that we wanted to be debt free (of all credit cards, but my school loans will probably stick around a bit longer) so we came up with a few goals. We knew that have four old credit card bills, two of which are active but rarely used, (the others have been cut up ages ago and are from our college days) and one new one that will be used on some occasions because it will earn us airline miles. And as our family, well mainly mine, is spread out all over, we will definitely use those airline miles. So we decided on these goals:
- Create a budget and stick to it.
- Pay off our smallest credit card first.
- Then move on to the next smallest and increase the payment on that one by the amount of the paid off card (i.e. if the smallest card had a minimum of $20, and that card is now paid off, the next card to pay off would get an extra $20 added to its monthly payment).
- Set up an emergency savings fund at the same time, contributing whatever we can.
- Continue on this plan until they are all paid off and then save, save, save.
Two months later, where are we? We have created a budget, mainly for food as we really don’t do a lot of shopping, etc. as want to save that money for other things. Also, most of our extra curricular activities are low key (library, hanging with friends, etc) so they are cheap. And best news of all, well to me, is that as of yesterday, we have paid off the two smallest credit cards, in full. They are gone, fo eva. It feels awesome. We do have three more to go, and they aren’t quite as small, but this small step is great.
Now that we have this power and know we can do it, we have made another concrete goal for ourselves. By January of 2011, we want to have four of the five credit cards paid off and have most of the last one taken care of. Can we do it? I think so. I definitely think we can have the four taken care of. Forever. The last one, like the last of anything – the last mile, the last five pounds you’re trying to lose, etc. – will be the hardest, but we are ready for the challenge.
Sorry for the long post. I tend to be longwinded, but now my reason for loving saving and coupons is out there. I will keep the blog updated with my savings news and I will check out any deals for the coming weeks. And keep Roux in your thoughts – she is getting four of her teeth stolen by the oral surgeon tomorrow. It is very possible that she too could swell up like I do and look like Sloth from the Goonies. We will be one hot looking mess.
