Day 7: Cashing in foreign money

I had shekels, a gift from a friend who visited Israel. I wanted dollars, a gift to my Visa payment. A quick trip to Chase Bank at lunch turned my 250 shekels into a $92.86 payment toward our debt.

I've also done two more mystery shops in the past two days. February will get a few extra dollars from those payments!

Day 6 - Home Haircuts

I've cut my spouse and kids' hair for years. A clipper set, hair scissors, and thinning shears were a great investment and have saved us hundreds, but my hair was always trickier and I went to a salon.

A few months ago, I decided to stop dying my hair and cut my hair into a pixie to get rid off the overdyed part. I loved it!

It takes *so* much less product. It's so fast and easy to style. And YouTube videos and thinning shears have made it an easy at-home project for my spouse to keep up the cut when I feel shaggy. This video was a good guide for a goof-proof, very short pixie. 

Haircuts at a salon are at least $50 plus tip. I have budgeted $0 on hair this year, using the stash of half-full products under the sink and keeping this short 'do with home haircuts.

No spend victory!

Day 5 - Unexpected income

A weird thing happened yesterday. My ex-mother-in-law showed up at the door with mail for me from the old house. It was from the California State Controller - I was owed money I didn't know about. It was in an old Paypal account. Logged in this morning and cashed out an unexpected $60.59.

I was also paid for a mystery shop performed last month, $57.00. 

And my spouse was reimbursed for a work lunch, $19.93. 

That's an extra $137.52 to apply to debt this week! 

Day 4 - Debt, Budgeting, and Our SMART Goal for 2018

Our Debt:
Starling and I have have $24,682.51 credit card and student loan debt. I also have a personal loan used for my previous divorce, at zero interest until 2025, and will begin to tackle that (with the okay of the lender) after the interest bearing debt is repaid.

Our Goal: 
Goals are most attainable if they're SMART -

1. Specific - what do we want to achieve? Answer the 5 W's - who, what, why, where, which (resources needed)?
2. Measurable - how do we know when we've achieved it? 
3. Attainable - can it be done in the allotted time frame?
4. Realistic - is the timeframe realistic t meet the goal?
5. Time-Based - the deadline! 

Starling and I are working together to repay at least half our debt - $12,341.26 - by December 31, 2018. 

At a little over $1,000 a month, this is a challenging but achievable goal, and one that we can manage by staying on a strict budget and adding extra income whenever possible.

Our Budget
We have a zero based budget, every expected dollar accounted for and planned. Any extra money that comes into our life, from overtime, tips, selling things, extra jobs, etc., will go straight to debt repayment.

Our budget is tight, as we live in a high cost of living region on a lower than average income, but we are going by the adage of Use it Up, Wear it Out, Make Do, and Do Without and working together, we can stick to it.

Buy Nothing New Year

In an effort to come to a deeper understanding of enough, gain a more realistic perspective of what I really need, and develop a more responsible relationship with my own consumerism, I'm planning on spending the year 2018 without spending money. This blog is to track my plan of buying nothing new. 

Use it up, wear it out, make due, do without, and use the extra cash to create financial stability. 

Exceptions

• Regular bills - rent, electricity, insurance, debt repayment, etc. 
• Consumables as replacements as they are used up - toilet paper, cleaning supplies, 
• Food and seeds to grow food
• Gas and vehicle maintenance 
• Medical needs
• Supplies needed to complete existing crafts, second-hand whenever possible.
• Shoes, on a one-in, one-out basis, second-hand whenever possible.

What we're not buying

I'll be tracking the little things I would have otherwise bought here.