Living with One Car in a Two-Car World (Guest Post)

Guest Post by Liz from Frugally Blonde

When I tell new acquaintances that my husband and I share one car, I am usually met with a mix of shock and pity. In our affluent society, it is practically unheard of for each adult driver in a household not to have his or her own car. 

However, my family has managed well with only one car for four years, and we plan to continue to live this way as long as it seems necessary. While our lifestyle might not work for everyone, I hope that it demonstrates that living without a second car can be both possible and practical.

When my husband and I were first married and both working, it was easy to just have one car with the help of public transportation. However, a year after our wedding we moved to an outer suburb/small town bereft of a subway or bus system that we could use, and shortly after I quit my job to stay home with our newborn daughter.

There was no other way for my husband to get to his job 30 minutes from home except by driving--which meant that I was left without transportation during the day. So that's what we decided to do. Now, three years later, we have added a second daughter to our family, but not a second car!

The girls and I stay at home most days without a car. Once a week (occasionally twice), we get up early in the morning, drive my husband to work, and spend the entire day on errands and appointments. Then we drive 30 minutes to pick him up in the evening, and we all drive 30-45 minutes home in rush-hour traffic.

Why do we have only one car? The simple answer is that we do not feel that we can responsibly afford another one. At certain times during the past four years, we might have been able to squeeze a car payment into our budget, but it would have been at the expense of our other priorities.

For instance, we were blessed last year to be able to purchase our first home. We knew that doing so would seriously hamper our ability to get a second car in the near future, but we felt that a home was more needed as well as a much better investment. Further, although we would not rule out a car payment, we would much prefer to pay for a second car in cash, as we did for our first one.

Clearly, living with one car can be challenging and a sacrifice. However, after four years in this situation, we have discovered a host of unexpected blessings and benefits that have come with our unconventional lifestyle.

First of all, we easily save hundreds of dollars a year by not paying for gas, insurance, maintenance, fees, and taxes for a second car. It also helps us save money in other ways. Out of necessity, I have become extremely organized about my shopping trips. I combine trips and map out the route that is most efficient. I try to do most of my grocery shopping for a two-week period in one trip, and I can often go at least a week without going to the supermarket, except perhaps for fresh fruit. Limiting my shopping trips to once a week also prevents me from being tempted by impulse purchases.

On a more personal level, I feel that our situation has also blessed me with the opportunity to truly blossom in our home and to focus on my life there. At first, as a new mom, I chafed at being unable to get out of the house, and I admit that some days it is still hard. But now with two little ones, I have so much to do that I can’t get it all done even with being home all day! And my girls and I have developed a rhythm to our days, so much so that I feel very discombobulated if I take the car more than one day a week.

 

I believe that the day will come when our lifestyle and/or our growing family will require us to purchase a second car. God-willing, at that point we will have the money to do so. And quite honestly, I am looking forward to that day. I know that I will never take having my own transportation for granted, but rather see it as a wonderful privilege and gift.

Until then, I tell my friends, I may not get out much, but they're welcome to come over!

 

Liz lives in Nothern Virginia with her husband and two little girls. Her blog, Frugally Blonde, is a place to discuss frugality and celebrate living the good life on less.

Photo credit: Sports Car Workshops

Our Journey Towards Saving 100% Down For Our First Home: Part 1

Back seven years ago when we were first married, we had this crazy idea that we wanted to pay 100% cash for our first home. It wasn't yet a goal; it was more of a far-off dream, something we never really thought would be possible, but was a cool idea to consider.

We got married right before Jesse's last semester of undergrad so before we could even consider saving for a house, Jesse had to make it through undergrad and law school. With both of our parents' encouragement, we had worked hard during high school and saved carefully so when we married, we had enough money to pay cash for undergrad and law school, and a little bit left over in case of an emergency.

Prior to getting married, we had crunched a bunch of numbers, written out numerous rough drafts of possible budgets, and decided we'd do something counter-cultural: we'd commit to stay out of debt through law school. We had the money to pay for school set aside in our bank account, so we would use that to pay for school and live off of whatever we could earn while Jesse was in school.

Knowing that Jesse wouldn't be able to work much while in law school and planning for me to be a stay-at-home mom as soon as children came along (whenever God saw fit to bless us with children--we'd left that in His hands!), committing to stay out of debt seemed like a fairly audacious goal. And it turned out to be a whole lot harder than we could have envisioned.

I came from a family where a strong work ethic was instilled in us from the time we were little. My parents didn't believe in hand-outs; we all had to pull our own weight as part of the family. As soon as we were old enough to earn money, we were expected to buy our own clothes and pay for our own expenses. My parents were generous to us and paid us for extra jobs we did around the house, but laziness was not tolerated in their home.

I so appreciate this about my parents as this was one of the biggest things which helped me survive those grueling years of law school. If I'd have grown up with an entitlement mentality, I'd have never survived.

As I've shared here before, many months when Jesse was in law school, we had no idea how we were going to pay our bills. Most of the time, the numbers never worked out on paper. But we committed never to tell anyone about our needs, give 10% of our little income to our church, and trust that God would provide.

I remember numerous times when Jesse and I would be on our knees literally begging God to please provide as we had no idea how we would pay for our rent or electricity, or even food. God always provided--sometimes at the last moment and through the most unexpected means. He was continuously faithful and our trust in Him grew by leaps and bounds during those first few years of marriage.

We pinched our pennies, worked as many different side jobs and at-home jobs as we could scrape together or scrounge up, and learned to pray like never before. And by God's grace, we made it through law school without any debt. We had very little money to our name, but Jesse had his law license!

Almost immediately after graduation, we discovered just how much freedom there was in being debt-free. We didn't have any chains of school loans to drag around with us for the next ten or fifteen years making our monthly expenses quite low, so we didn't have to worry about landing a high-paying job.

All that hard work and short-term sacrifice was beginning to pay off!

During the last year of law school, we'd discovered this guy named Dave Ramsey. Jesse started listening to his radio show and kept coming to me all pumped about what he was learning. I really wasn't too excited. After all, I stubbornly thought, weren't we pretty smart when it came to finances? Did we really need some guru with a radio show to tell us what to do?

Little could I have guessed at that time how much this "guru" would end up influencing our lives and changing the way we thought about money. But first, I had to humble myself and be willing to listen...

...To be continued

True Frugality Considers the ROI

Frugal in Virginia's husband, Ryan, has another smashing piece up here which you'll want to go read. I found myself nodding along in agreement until I came to the sentence which said they don't reuse their Ziploc bags.

I had to stop and catch my breath for a second.

They don't reuse Ziploc bags?? Doesn't that break rule number 10454 in The Frugal Zealot's Handbook? Doesn't everyone know that you must get at least 543 uses out of a Ziploc bag before throwing it out? That's just what we frugal folks do. Anything else would be... well, it would just be unthinkable.

Jesting aside, the point of the piece was excellent: true frugality considers the ROI (return on investment of time) as the bottom line. There are thousands of ways to save a buck. But each family needs to carefully weigh how much time it is going to take to save that buck. Time is money, too.

So figure out which money-saving efforts are worth your time and stick with those. Don't feel guilted over the fact that you might not be doing all the frugal things some other family is doing. You can't do it all, so pick and choose what works for your family in the season of life you're in.

For me, it's not a big deal at all to reuse Ziploc bags. I do a lot of baking so when a freezer bag of baked goods is empty, I just dump the crumbs into the trash and stick the empty bag back into the freezer door to be at-the-ready for my next Baking Day spree. It probably takes me all of ten seconds and it means that I only buy a box of freezer bags twice a year--at the most.

But there are a lot of things I don't do. For instance, I don't use a clothesline, don't cloth diaper, and we do go out to eat once a week. Just like it seems weird to me that someone who considers themselves frugal would not also reuse their Ziploc bags, it probably seems strange to some of you that I don't hang my clothes out, use cloth diapers, or make every meal from scratch.

I've done each of those things before and might do them again in the future, but I've found they just don't work well for our family right now. And I'm okay with that. What works for one family, won't necessarily work for another family.

I love how Ryan ends his post:

Check up on yourself. Evaluate your frugal techniques. Which ones are really worth it? If you wouldn’t accept $2 per hour as payment for your labor from another, don’t accept it from yourself under the guise of frugality. Valuing your time is the subtle and important difference between being cheap and being frugal.

The frugal experience is about living better on less. If you miss the living better part, you’ve missed it entirely.

Just for fun: do you reuse your Ziploc bags? What common frugal techniques do you find to not work or be worth it to your family? Tell us about it in the comments.

Making short-term sacrifices in order to achieve long-term goals

Jennifer recently left the following comment on my blog:

I have been following for about 10 months now and have managed to make a huge dent in our "old" grocery budget. However, I am also an experimental cook who loves to try new things, especially fish and ethnic dishes. We eat fish at least three meals a week (including lunches i.e. tuna) and fresh fish is rarely on "good" sale, and never free. We also love Indian, Thai, and Chinese, all of which I cook from scratch. I've always admired your honesty, as well as the fact that you repeatedly (and sincerely) say "what we do doesn't work for everyone" - so I am also wondering, do you "miss" variety in your menus?

Do I miss variety? Yes and no. Yes, in the sense that there are many things I often see at the store which I'd love to buy but which I know would totally bust our grocery budget. No, because I truly believe that making temporary short-term sacrifices (like, for us, eating simple meals made with inexpensive ingredients--see some of our normal menus here) is worth it to achieve long-term goals.

Before my husband and I got married, we sat down and did a lot of calculating to see how little we could survive on. Our goal was to make it through Jesse's six remaining months of undergrad and the following three years of law year without going into debt.

We had the money saved up and set aside to pay for school, but we didn't have much more beyond that. We figured that if he worked part-time and I worked part-time, we could manage to make close to $1000 per month. So that was the dollar amount we had to work with in making our budget. Considering that our rent ate up over half of that amount, we had around $125/week leftover to work with.

It seemed rather daunting to be able to pay for our utilities, transportation, food, and living expenses with that amount but we were determined to make it work. We knew we would have much more freedom if we weren't making payments on law school loans for years to come. And we knew if Jesse were to begin his legal career without the bondage of debt, it would give us much more of a foundation for achieving our long-term goals of owning a home debt-free, owning real estate debt-free, and being able to share abundantly with those in need.

Yes, we had some pretty big long-term goals from the get-go, and the only way to achieve those was by making short-term sacrifices. It would mean going without, saying "no", and exercising lots of self-discipline. In short, it would mean experiencing some temporary discomforts in order to reap lifelong rewards.

The temporary discomforts during the law school years weren't always easy, believe me. Both of us had moments when we just wanted to throw in the towel and throw our arms up in defeat. There were many times when we wished we could spend money on this or that or enjoy some of the little luxuries in life it seemed everyone else was. But we plodded on and on and on--wearing the same clothes over and over, driving an old car, brown-bagging it, clipping coupons, forgoing dinners out, living in a cramped little basement apartment, and so on--constantly reminding ourselves that it would someday be worth it.

And it has been every bit worth it. The little luxuries in life that we gave up--like eating out, making fancy meals, buying new clothes or things, driving a nicer car--pale in comparison to the freedom we now have living a life without payments.

Many people expected that as soon as my husband got out of law school and our income quadrupled, we'd stop being so frugal and start "really living". Shouldn't we reward ourselves for those sacrifices by loosening up on our tightwad ways? It was easy to justify, for sure, but we'd lived on such a beans-and-rice budget for so long that neither of us felt comfortable with all of a sudden becoming more extravagant. Plus, we have more audacious long-term goals--like paying cash for a house--and we know the only way we'll be able to achieve those in a timely fashion is by making more short-term sacrifices.

We have given ourselves quite a bit more budget breathing room than we had during law school and we have mutually decided to allow ourselves to "splurge" every now and then (like our dinner at The Cheesecake Factory last Friday night!), but we still adhere to a strict written budget and we do our best to constantly be looking for ways to keep our expenses and expenditures to a minimum. This enables us to live on much less than we make so we put a large part of what we earn towards saving to pay cash for a house. In addition, it allows us to have much more to share with others.

None of this would be possible if we were buried in debt. Not only would we have all the stress of trying to make ends meet while paying all our payments, we'd not have the freedom to give generously or the ability to make good traction in our savings goals.

So yes, there are days when I wish I could go to the store and just buy whatever I want without worrying about staying within our grocery budget. And yes, there are times when I wish I could make more elaborate meals with more expensive ingredients instead of planning our menus based upon the sales and what coupons I have. But then I quickly realize that sticking with a small grocery budget and eating simple meals is one of the reasons we're living a life without payments and one of the reasons we're able to save more and give more. When thinking of it in that light, it is so worth it!

And honestly? I really enjoy the challenge of working with a small grocery budget. In fact, while our menus might seem dull to some, we really rarely notice the fact that we spend so little at the grocery store. Through years of practice, I've learned a number of tricks (like the Buy Ahead Principle) which, coupled with a large dose of creativity and ingenuity, allow us to enjoy a rather varied and healthful fare without breaking the bank to do so.

Note: I wanted to make it clear that I am not advocating everyone need to have a grocery budget like ours or that you need to forgo eating fancy dinners. These are choices we have made based upon our family's goals and what works best for us right now. Your family's goals and needs are different than ours so please do not feel the need to do similar to us. I just share what we've done and are doing in hopes it might be an inspiration to you to find ways you can live on less in order to save more and give more.

Guest Post: Once-a-Week Frugal Food Night

Guest Post by Amy Ellen from Health Begins With Mom

Eating healthful foods can sometimes put a strain on a family's grocery budget. Buying food in bulk, joining food co-ops, and shopping strategically all help, for sure. In addition, our family has found another strategy for bringing down our weekly budget: our family has committed to have a Frugal Food Night every Wednesday.

Of course, we try to be frugal all week. But, we see our Frugal Food Wednesdays as an opportunity to save big! I try to prepare a meal for my family of six for about $1.50. Our goal with this extra budget-cruncher is to free up some money for the more pricey, nutrient-dense foods we want to include in our diet the rest of the week.

Here's what we've been making for our Frugal Food Wednesdays recently:

Take a two-pound bag of pinto beans and sort the beans for any stones or bad beans. (These around $2 at the grocery store and less than $1 per pound if you buy it in bulk.)

Soak the beans overnight in a crock pot turned off by covering the beans with plenty of water and stirring in about 2 tablespoons of plain yogurt. The yogurt will begin to break down some of the amino acids that cause our digestive systems some difficulty. This process will also make the beans' nutrients more bioavailable (ready for our body to use).

The next morning, rinse the beans and refill the crock pot with fresh, pure water. Let the beans cook on low for most of the day. I start mine first thing in the morning. In the early afternoon, add 2 cups of brown rice ($0.50), 2 Tablespoons of chili powder, 1 teaspoon of garlic powder, and salt and pepper to taste. (Since I purchase my seasonings in bulk these spices only add up to costing about 5 cents.)

Let this cook on high until supper time. Voila! You have a dinner that serves about 12 for less than $3.

At first glance, this meal may not look like magazine cover-food. However, the seasonings make this dish surprisingly tasty.

Here is the cost breakdown: $2 of beans, $0.50 of rice, and let's say $0.10 of spices. That is a total of $2.60. This meal will serve 12, so divide that figure in half for my family of six, and we have a complete meal for $1.30. (It will even be less if you buy your beans and rice in bulk.)

Here are some variation ideas:

• Adding a can or two of petite diced tomatoes gives this meal a fuller flavor. Two cans will add about $0.50 per meal.
• At times, we will often omit the rice and serve plain chili beans with corn muffins. My children really enjoy this variation. Simple corn muffins are very frugal!
• Our favorite variation is Black Bean soup. Start with just one pound of black beans instead of two pounds of pinto beans. Still fill the crock pot up with water and cook as normal, adding the rice, seasonings and 2 cans of tomato paste. Black Beans sell here for $1.15, plus the two cans of tomato paste for $1.10 and rice for $0.50. Since this soup will also serve two complete meals, the cost is still less than $1.50 per meal. 

A few additional thoughts on this meal:

• Leftovers freeze well for the next Wednesday. Or they are great layered with whole wheat tortillas, salsa and cheese for a quick Saturday night supper--which makes for another very frugal meal.
• When reheating the rice and beans, spread a thin layer of salsa over the top to prevent drying out in the oven.
• If your children are new to this type of food, cheese sprinkled on the top might make the meal more exciting.
• Our family eats an enormous amount of fresh foods throughout the week. We feel one night with all cooked food is not tremendously harmful to our health. If you can't skip vegetables once a week, you can always steam broccoli or another sale-priced vegetable. This would increase the cost of the meal by at least $1.

Amy Ellen is a homeschooling mother of a third-grader, a first-grader, a preschooler, and a nineteen-month-old-tagalong. She has a vision to help moms who want to be healthy but don't know where to start... and moms who know where to start but need some encouragement along the way. She blogs at HealthBeginsWithMom.com and is a Wellness Consultant in her "free time".

Is it really a "necessity"?

Last week, in my 100 Ways to Save $100 post, I talked about using less and I briefly mentioned how we've eliminated paper towels from our home. Little did I expect that this simple remark would result in a number of emails asking how we have done this.

You want to know how we've eliminated paper towels from our home? Well, here's the answer: I just stopped buying them. Seriously, that was it.

About two years ago or so, I realized that paper towels were one item I could never find that great of a deal on and I most assuredly never seemed to be able to snag them for free. I also realized that these were an item many people lived without for thousands of years, without being the worse for it.

So I talked to my husband and asked him if I could do an experiment: could I just stop buying paper towels and see if we missed them?

You know what? We never really even noticed. When we needed to clean up a spill, we just used a towel. When we needed to wipe something up, we used a rag. And so on. I keep a drawer-full of towels and rags in the kitchen handy for these types of things.

Honestly, the only times I've realized we didn't have paper towels were when someone was at our home and they asked for a paper towel. I'd just tell them we actually don't use paper towels, but the rags or towels are in the bottom drawer in the kitchen.

We've received quite a few reactions of shock to that statement. It seems as if the thought of living without paper towels is a pretty foreign idea to most Americans. Oh well, I guess it wouldn't be the first time we've been classified as weird!

Now, I'm not writing this to make the case that all of you need to quit buying paper towels. However, I share it as an example of how there are many things we've come to think are "necessities" in life which really aren't.

How about trying to live without some of these things and see if it really is that difficult or earth-shattering? You might be surprised to discover you don't even miss these once-considered "necessities".

What about you? What simple things have you eliminated from your life and found you didn't miss them at all? Tell us about it.

A "credit card crisis"?

Earlier today, my husband and I were listening to a local radio station and a bit of news caught my attention. The broadcaster was stating how America is facing a "credit card crisis" because credit card companies will no longer be sending out loads of credit card offers. Instead these offers will be "slowing to a trickle", according to the report.

Excuse me? We call that a "credit card crisis"? I think that I would instead refer to that as a "welcome change of pace". Call me old-fashioned, but I think anytime we can discourage people from buying stuff they can't afford with money they don't have, it's a good thing, not a national crisis.

Of course, I happen to be one of those weird people who pays with cash almost 100% of the time, doesn't own a credit card, hasn't ever had any debt, and isn't living paycheck-to-paycheck.*

*Note: All of this is only by the grace of God, the wise example of my parents, Dave Ramsey's inspiration, and a commitment to "live like no one else"! By the way, if you are struggling financially and feeling in a helpless situation, do not despair. Read more about our own personal financial journey and lessons we've learned along the way here, here, and here. And then check out my Top Four Tips for Those in Financial Despair.

Frugal Friday: Two Years of Nothing

Inspired by OwlHaven's 30 Days of Nothing Challenge, I wrote a little about our lean law school years and how it has positively impacted our spending habits for my Frugal Friday post.

You can check it out here along with dozens of other great words of wisdom and motivation from frugal zealots around the blogosphere.

Guest Post: Living long-term on lower income

Guest Post from Lyn

My husband and I since we have been married (4+ years) have been living on a lower-than-average income. He works with teens in a group home. It is a very challenging job but he enjoys it very much. I am at home and live with chronic illness. We live only on my husband’s income.

My job is being "keeper of my home" and a helper to my husband. With the limited energy I have, I cook, care for my home and try to be as frugal as possible to the best of my ability. There are days I am successful and days that I am not. The amazing thing has been that I have been able to remain home on one lower-income salary. God continues to look out for us.

Several years back we wanted to simply get out of debt. At first, we started to chip away at medical bills--bills we had due to a terrible health insurance plan at the time. We progressed onto consumer debt and have fully paid one debt off and are hoping to pay off the rest in the very near future.

Last year we had to come up with money for a roof repair of $2,000, numerous car repairs, and have recently had to have a new toilet installed. The encouraging part though has been that we have paid off well over $10,000 the last 2 years in medical bills, debt, home repairs and car repairs, all while living on a very modest income.

We were still able to achieve this when last fall due to a downsizing of my husband’s work hours we lost $800-$900/month in pay. It was difficult but it also showed us how to scale back to our basic needs and to be thankful for all that we do have.

Our salary this year will be around $21-22K net. It is only from the Lord, really that we are able to do all of this. My husband has never made more than a mid-30K net income (this was one year with much overtime, often working 70-80 hours per week). Otherwise it’s always been in the $20K range or less. 

We live in New England, where the winters are very cold and the cost of living is high. We own a small modular home and are responsible for all repairs, upkeep, taxes, and insurance.   

Some practicals on how we achieve this:

::Putting all extra cash (holiday pay, income tax refunds, government rebate, extra from 3-pay check months twice per year) towards debt  (*Tip, once you are out of debt, do the same to build savings.)

::Not going out just to spend (extra money is always put towards debt, bills or future expenses).   

::Padding some of our bills ahead as we can (planning ahead really helps)

::Not going on vacations (for now). Our last vacation was our honeymoon.

::Giving up cable and reducing all categories of income (We cut everything when husband’s hours were reduced.)

::Utilizing coupons--I tend to use those that are for healthy foods and will use coupons for free or close-to-free items (thanks to moneysavingmom!). This really helps our budget. (One of the only non-necessity items we have kept is our internet because I feel it saves me so much more than what I pay for it.)

::Stay home most days/live with one car

::Eat out minimally and when we do it’s done inexpensively

::Make a game out of being frugal. This helps you to be creative with what you have, instead of focusing on what you don’t.

::Shop at home with what you already have and look for solutions to your needs instead of buying more.

::We each have a small stipend each pay day and can do with that amount what we please (the rest is budgeted). It really helps our mindset to have something to be able to spend if desired.

::Choosing to live in smaller and less expensive housing (reduced utilities, less to clean and maintain)

The best thing anyone can do if they live on a smaller income is to get out of debt. Do whatever you can to accomplish this as it will help you to better manage your money in this challenging economy.

Once we are out of debt we will have a little wiggle room. However, we will still need to be able to manage on a smaller income, and we shall.

There are times I am discouraged by this, but for the most part I am grateful to be where we are at and to have what we do. I find my efforts and abilities are best utilized in helping to maximize the income we do have. In this season of my life it is easier to try and spend less than to be concerned about earning more.

To be honest, it can be challenging to put more money into savings on a lower income. I continue to be positive and look for ways to cut back and spend less. The more creative and proactive I become, the less time I have to worry, feel defeated or feel sorry for myself. We are blessed and there are so many in this world that have much less than we do.

Lyn is a full-time homemaker who resides in lovely rustic New England. She enjoys frugal and simple living and strives for a balance of both while living with long-term chronic illness.  Although living on a smaller income, she feels blessed with all the Lord provides, as many have so much less. She can be contacted at spendingsimply (at) yahoo (dot) com.

Extreme Frugality: What would you give up?

Over at the wonderful blog, Days to Come, Jeana is doing an incredible series of posts on Extreme Frugality this week. You must run, not walk, over there and read them here, here, and here. Good stuff.

Jeana recently gave up couponing in order to simplify her life and I applaud her decision. While I doubt I would ever completely give up coupons, I've found that I've greatly simplified things in the past two years--especially since having two children. I've cut back considerably on the deals I'll do, the time I spend planning and shopping, and I have learned that it's okay to take a break from bargain-shopping.

Many people often wonder why, if I'm such a minimalist, do I have a website which encourages people to buy stuff? It might seem like a contradiction on the surface, except you forgot one important point: by and large the deals I post here are for food and household products--stuff that 99% of most Americans buy at least a few times per year.

One of my goals in blogging here is to not only help everyday, average Americans find ways they can save money on items they would already be buying anyway, but I also aim to alter your mindset. (You mean you hadn't figured that out? Maybe I shouldn't have told you!)

You see, I would wager that the majority of Americans would never consider buying the bulk of their groceries on sale with a coupon or stocking up on a good deal to last them until the next good deal. Most people might buy a few items on sale, clip a few coupons, and save a few quarters each week, but the thought of buying almost everything on sale with a coupon is very foreign to a large percentage of the population. When people start grasping these sorts of concepts and applying them to shopping at the grocery store, it often not only saves them a few hundred dollars or more each month, it also often begins to completely change the way they think about life in general.

So while I'm glad to share deals and encourage you to save money at the grocery store, my hope is that what you glean here will not stop with the clipping of coupons. Instead, I hope the things shared here will cause you to consider making other much more substantial life changes: beginning to live below your means, getting on a budget, developing self-discipline, putting a financial plan in place, thinking long-term, and be willing to go against the flow to make sacrifices now to benefit you long-term.

Speaking of thinking and planning for the long-term, Jeana asked a really great question to kick off her series which I thought we would all do well to consider. She wrote:

Lately I've been thinking about how over the past few years we have found new ways to save money as paycuts and higher costs have squeezed on our budget. I've been asking myself, "What is the next thing I would give up or do differently if I had to lower costs?" and then trying to do that next thing now to put us one step ahead of the next big squeeze. I'll be writing about some of the new things I've been trying soon. For now, why don't you tell me: What's the next thing you would do to create some wiggle room in your budget, if you had to?

What would you give up or do differently if you had to lower costs? Is this something you could go ahead and cut from your budget now in order to give you more wiggle room for later? In addition, I'd love to hear how using coupons at the grocery store may have affected your thinking on other areas of life. Tell us about it in the comments section.

The Debt Avalanche: What Do You Think?

I read an interesting article by Consumerism Commentary last week (hat-tip to The Simple Dollar) on "the Debt Avalanche":

If you have a certain amount of money available to pay off a portion of your debt each month, even if that certain amount changes, there is a mathematically correct way of paying off that debt. You can call this approach the Debt Avalanche. It is similar to Dave Ramsey’s popular “debt snowball” method, with one small but important detail: With the Debt Avalanche you will pay off your debt faster and pay less total interest to banks and lenders.

The simple calculation for the Debt Avalanche requires only the interest rates for each debt account. This assumes that all debt accounts have the same tax liability, but if that’s not the case, determine your interest rate after taxes for this calculation.

Read full article.

When my husband and I got married, we purposed to stay out of debt if at all possible while he went through law school. Now that law school is behind us and we've avoided debt this long, we're really determined to completely avoid debt in every way, shape, and form for the rest of our lives.

We've sought to debt-proof ourselves through a number of means: living on less than we make; living on a strict budget; building a six-month emergency fund; communicating openly and honestly as a husband and wife about finances; and investing in good life, health, and disability insurance. Only God knows whether we'll be able to completely avoid debt our entire lives, but we are quite determined to do everything we can to keep from being enslaved to it.

While you all well know that I am a huge Dave Ramsey fan, since I've never been in debt, I personally can't say what works or doesn't work with regards to getting out of debt. And I don't necessarily think the same exact steps will work 100% perfectly for each and every person and situation.

So, what do you think? I know a number of you readers are seeking to get out of debt and I'd love to hear what is working for you. Do you think that Dave Ramsey's "Debt Snowball" method is the method for debt reduction? Or would you agree more with Consumerism Commentary's proposed "Debt Avalanche"? What has worked for you?

Living like no one else

I just got a less-than-nice comment from someone about our van situation. The basic gist of the comment was (I'll edit the part out calling me a liar, etc.): "Why on earth if your husband is an attorney and you make money from home can you not just go out and get a new vehicle??"

Since there are quite a number of people who read this blog, rude comments are pretty normal and I'm pretty used to it--it's part of blogging in a public forum. However, after I deleted the comment, I got to thinking...

You know, we could go buy a vehicle. We could take our emergency fund money and go buy another used vehicle or even a new vehicle. We could take our house savings and go buy another vehicle. We could even do what most normal Americans do and just go take out a loan for a new car.

But here's the deal: while we have money in our bank account, we don't have money saved or allotted for a new vehicle or even a used vehicle. And guess what that means? We aren't buying a new vehicle or even a new-to-us vehicle. Not right now at least.

We had money to pay for the car repairs, we don't have money to pay for a new vehicle right now. We're very hopeful that the mechanic will have our van in good working order by tonight and we're very hopeful that after replacing just about everything there is to replace on it, the van should run beautifully like it used to.

What we thought was a small problem with the van has mushroomed into weeks of work. Just when we thought it was fixed, something else would go wrong with it and we'd have to take it back to the mechanic again. It has been a much longer and costlier process than we were ever expecting and yes, it's been frustrating, but that doesn't mean we just throw in the towel and go buy another vehicle.

Have we considered buying a new vehicle? Absolutely! Do we wish we had piles of cash sitting around without a name on them so we could just go buy a new vehicle and forget all the hassle of trying to get our much-used van fixed? You better believe it!

But you know what? Waiting until we can afford to buy something and trying to make do with what we currently have is how most people used to live. We're learning patience, we're learning flexibility, and we're learning to be content with what we have.

We still have one running vehicle and if need be, we can go back to being a one-car family again. It's not my first choice, but we did it for a few years and I'm willing to do it again.

Yes, we're "living like no one else". Yes, a lot of people think we're really crazy. Yes, sharing what I share on my blog means that some people aren't going to understand, are going to question why we're doing what we're doing, and some people will say rude comments about our life choices.

You know what, though? While I don't like car problems and I'd not have chosen the kinks in our plans they've resulted in the last few weeks, I'd much prefer to wait until I can afford something before I buy it. I much prefer not having to live paycheck-to-paycheck. And I much prefer not being slave to the bondage of debt.

We're living like no one else so that someday we can live and give like no one else!