When we moved to our current school district two years ago, we bought a house there, without selling the previous one. This meant we ended up with two mortgages – one humongous and the other on a 10-year track to payoff. This necessitated the serious need for a budget.

We’ve always considered ourselves pretty frugal – almost always eating at home and buying our school clothes at high-end garage sales. We never carry credit-card debt – unless it’s a short-term, zero-percent offer at Menards. We’re big on getting a great deal – and usually that means buying pre-owned. But over the years expenses got away from us. When when we had low monthly expenses and almost no mortgage, our budget could handle the kind of discretionary purchases and travel we’d become accustomed to. But that’s all different now.

MAKING THE PLAN
A year ago, I started taking a careful look at our budget. I set up an Excel document and added the real charges we paid throughout the prior 12 months. This gave me a realistic look at utilities, seasonal expenses, gas, groceries, travel costs, and our sneaky credit card bill. The Excel program allowed me to create columns that automatically add themselves, so as I replace budgeted amounts with “real” figures, it recalculates it for me to see if we’re still on track.

It feels strange to talk about our family’s finances, and many of our “numbers” I won’t share, but I think it’s important to explain the areas in our life we’ve identified as “belts that could tighten.” If you’re from a similar middle-class life, you might find that cutting down on these areas in the budget could help you as well. I will add the disclaimer that we’re fortunate in that beyond the two mortgages, we don’t have any debt.

BELIEVING IT
Before setting these budget changes, our family had no idea we could pay the second mortgage down quickly. The act of making the pay-down a priority is what made the difference. Now 12 months after implementing our new monthly money goals, the progress we’ve made shows we could possibly pay off our second mortgage a year from now. It would take continued focus, but I truly believe it is possible.

In this series of articles, I’ll address the ways we changed our budget – and with any luck, in one year we’ll be celebrating the payoff of our second mortgage. Please read on in the weeks to come – I hope our efforts help others as well!

MORTGAGE PAYOFF 101 SERIES:
Getting Started
Monthly Charges
The Credit Card
Sell Your Stuff
Lessons Learned

It’s our year to host Christmas for my husband’s family, and rather than exchanging gifts, we’ve decided to play a game with “white elephant” gifts and put our cash to better use.

In his letter to family, my husband wrote about a population he serves as principal in his rural Northwestern Wisconsin school district:

I thought about adopting a family for Christmas gifts, but the population I would like us to adopt is so transient that I’m not sure it would work. We have 43 homeless children in our district with two homeless shelters. The problem is that they move in and out all the time so I’m not sure they would still be there after we rounded up gifts. Instead, every day I see the need for winter clothes, so I think that would be the best way to give….. besides they don’t need toys – I do know they need to keep warm.

On a side note: Every year Darla and Craig adopt a boy/girl at a grade level they would like to buy a backpack and school supplies for. Last year, our school put together a total of 20 backpacks with school supplies. Teachers knew we had them and if a family shared their child would not have school supplies, they sent them to the office. All 20 were given away during our open house. If you are looking for a tax write-off – check with your local school district. Better yet just take a school supply list at a grade level and fill a backpack and donate it to your school.

Within a few days, his two sisters – owners of Guestbook Store and Font Diner – sponsored 12 students and delivered this beautiful pile of filled backpacks. They’d spent an afternoon shopping with our young niece and nephew, who loved the idea of helping needy children to get ready for school.

Ask and ye shall receive…

Former posts about backpack donation:
Donating School Supplies: It Feels Good
Positively Speaking: Lessons about Poverty

Our boat lift cover had disintegrated a couple years ago, and we’d been getting by with large tarps. But the wind that comes across our wide part of the lake was far too great for the thin vinyl. We were unwilling to purchase a new cover, since the cheapest one we could find was more than $500 (the used boat lift cost us only $200 all together, so that price for just a cover seemed a little ridiculous,) so we decided to try recycling an old billboard sign.

We purchased the 12′ x 25′ vinyl billboard from $25 from a wholesaler we found on Craigslist, and purchased a grommet machine as well. The kids helped us to flatten the billboard sign on the lawn so we could accurately measure and place the grommets along the perimeter of the sign. The backside of the sign is white, so that can face up. The realtor advertisement faces down toward the boat.

Then we placed the vinyl on top of the boat lift, zip-tied two sides of the sign and bungied the other sides so it’s a perfect fit.

Voila!

Like my mom would say, “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without!”

Summer seems to be the only season I take the time to read books for pleasure. I’m pretty selective about what I pick up, since I only have those few weeks to get my annual page count read, so I only read what’s tried and true – and highly recommended by people I respect. I thought I’d share with you some of the books I’ve enjoyed the most in the past few summers. Most are not new releases, since I generally find them at garage sales. Some are VERY old classics. Enjoy!

NON-FICTION

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia, by Elizabeth Gilbert – I’m in the process of reading this right now. It’s a brilliant read about a woman’s search for self as she travels for a year across Italy, India and Indonesia.

French Women Don’t Get Fat – Awesome discussion about the French culture, which explains why the title is absolutely true. Rather than offering a “recipe” for weight-loss, the author describes the French philosophy to life, which celebrates food – but everything in moderation. Clearly I need to reread this book every year;)

The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch – By now, everyone knows this book. It’s another one I should read annually, as a reminder about what’s important in life.

A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose (Oprah’s Book Club, Selection 61), by Eckart Tolle – Interesting, spiritual discussion about how to approach life — living in the “present”.

The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment – the prequel to A New Earth.

FICTION

The Time Traveler’s Wife – Awesome, beautifully written, science fiction for the “romantic realist”. I’ve heard this story will be released as a movie in 2009. I hope the movie does it justice (hard to imagine!)

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter – Another beautiful story set partially in the 60’s, which is such an interesting backdrop. It’s about love, lies, and a child with Down’s Syndrome.

The Da Vinci Code — I love the mystery and the code-breaking, as well as the discussions necessarily generated about religion. I may read Angels and Demons this summer, as well.

All Things Grisham;)

CLASSICS

Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes – Heartwrenching and unique story about a low-IQ man who undergoes experimental treatment to increase his intelligence.

A Tale of Two Cities (Penguin Classics), by Charles Dickens – How I never read this one in high school or college, I don’t know. It’s an amazing story, after you acclimate to the 1800’s language. The two cities are London and Paris, set during the French Revolution. Similar themes to my other favorite modern novels. Fantastic.

The House of the Seven Gables (Enriched Classics), by Nathaniel Hawthorne – I purchased this book in Salem, MA, when we visited the House of Seven Gables a few years ago. Also written in the mid-1800’s, this book is even harder to get through than A Tale of Two Cities, but it’s a masterful, mysterious tale. I also have the Scarlet Letter, and hope to reread it this summer.

Paradise Lost (Penguin Classics), by Milton - I have reserved this at the library, and hope to muddle through the poem to find the parallels to the TV series LOST. This classic may be a very difficult read, though.

What are your favorite summer reads?

Dear 30-Year-Old Self,

Today we turn 40.

There are a lot of things I wish I could tell you.

For you, the next decade will be a roller-coaster ride, with exhilarating opportunity and success, coupled with stressful self-doubt and sadness.

I would encourage you to slow down, but that simply isn’t your personality right now. You’ll drive yourself at top speed, hitting the highway most of the time, but experiencing many dead ends and U-turns along the way.

Your core values will guide you, so you’ll never get too far off track.

I would tell you to reach out for help when you need it — but you probably won’t understand that’s what you need. Some of your friends may be less stressed than you are, because they choose to live in the same community as the rest of their family, or in a neighborhood, rather than in the country. Your friends depend on other people to help them raise their family. They understand that “it takes a village”. You’ll spend many years trying to do too much, too well, on your own.

But you’ll figure it out eventually.

I would tell you to be patient, but you will tell yourself that for ten years, and only be moderately successful at it. Instead I’ll tell you to keep the faith. The husband you chose is exactly the outstanding man you still want to spend the rest of your life with. And your children, who are little more than babies and mess-makers in your current life, will create the most fulfilling experience you’ve ever had.

You’ve invested your time wisely.

You think a perfectionist is someone with a neatly arranged home, who wears full makeup every day. But not all perfectionists identify with these traits. You’ll come to learn sometimes they have a messy house, but constantly expect more from themselves, no matter what’s happening in their life. They’re rarely completely satisfied with their achievements, and fail to celebrate their small successes.

Some day you’ll discover the happiness that can exist in lower expectations.

You’ll be surprised to discover your 30’s will take you in a wandering full-circle. So don’t burn your bridges.

Old connections will help you begin new journeys.

But the happy rights and regrettable wrongs of your 30’s will all mix to make you the imperfect – but improving – woman that writes this letter.

And I’m proud of that woman.

So forgive yourself more quickly than you think you should.

And smile more often.

And remember that process far outweighs product in every single breath you take.

Oh, and when you wonder about selling your tech stocks?

Just do it.

Love,
Your 40-Year-Old Self