Blogging Away Debt

We are getting settled in to the apartment and as I’ve been updating friends and family beyond my immediate family I am making mental notes of their responses. Housing is such a personal choice with, I am learning, all sorts of emotional ties involved. I’m just as guilty as the next guy as I look back at my 20’s and 30’s and realize I was chasing a housing dream defined for me by others–namely, society. When I take stock of the various living situations I’ve been in during my adult life my fondest memories come from my time in apartments! Now obviously some of that has to do with what was going on in my life at the time that was totally unrelated to the housing situation (relationship, job, life events, etc) but to some extent I am determining that the simplicity of apartment living has a lot to do with that contentment.

Now before some of you say it, I’ll readily admit I am not yet two weeks into this new place. I could be sick of it in just a few months and that remains to be seen. Things are very quiet so far and the neighbors are appropriately friendly. The kids are excited and that helps tremendously. I love that I can clean the apartment in all of 20 minutes and that there are a whole host of things that I do not have to worry about by living in a community setting like this.

But the criticism is out there for my choice to move to an apartment. I do think this is even more pronounced in my part of the country–Texas–where bigger truly is seen as better. A good friend originally from the Northeast was most shocked by the size of the “regular” neighborhood lots, the size of the houses on those lots and the seemingly mandatory 6-foot tall privacy fences around the backyard. Texans like their space. But I’ve learned the hard way that human nature is to FILL UP that space with STUFF and then what do you have? TOO MUCH STUFF. I also know the criticism about raising kids in apartments. I’ve never bought into that one though because much of our country and our world raise happy, healthy children in “apartment” like settings ALL the time. I’ll admit though this is a tough stigma to choose to overcome. I am better at it now than I was in my 20’s and 30’s but the stigma is definitely there. The kids seem okay with it but again–that might be the novelty of the whole situation. Time will tell.

Final thought: I’ve been talking to my Mom a lot lately about all of her stuff. My mom is almost 82 years old and was orphaned at age 5. I think her childhood experiences have turned her into the extreme pack rat that she is now. By no means is she a hoarder b/c everything is very neatly organized but serious amounts of stuff. My Dad now wishes they had moved out of my childhood home about 10-15 years ago into a more manageable space. At their age now their physical limitations make the idea of moving too much to bear. And so being the realist I am (a product, I am convinced, of having parents who were in their 40’s when they had me at a time that 40 year old women were not having babies and a mother who was sure she would die before the end of the school day–lol–not kidding…she would put me on the bus and say she hoped she’d be there when I came home…I WAS 8! There is a book waiting to be written about my mom…but I digress) I wonder why we all chase a house with lots of space when in the end…we need and should want to downsize to adjust to our inevitable physical, mental and perhaps financial limitations?!

So as I drove by this really nice Senior Apartment Complex right by our place it hit me. I think I want to live in one of those places! Hey…they include meal plans and activities! I could travel and have a small home base!

Changes Made

by Claire

Many of you have asked about what practical, day-to-day things I and my children have done to start saving serious money and paying down debt. Sundays are always a day that remind me of what huge changes we have made in our basic, everyday spending.

In June of 2012 I started making serious changes to our diet and eating habits. I wish I knew exactly how much of my debt can be attributed to eating out because my guess is that a good chunk of what I owe came from food! How pathetic is THAT?! But as I talk to friends and family about this, I know I am not alone in that very bad habit of eating meals out. Eating out is not only bad for us from a nutritional standpoint–it is just darn expensive! This last week I did not have a plan for meals after the move and I am sick of dropping $25 to Subway for a meal…not to mention sick of the food!

But how do we avoid it? As a mom who works outside the home while raising two very busy kids, I have to have a plan. And Sunday is my day to execute that plan. I spent five hours cooking today. I made our meals for the evening and lunches/snacks using the same ingredients. I start every week with the goal that we will not find ourselves in a drive thru window eating like seagulls! That’s a running joke with the kids “only seagulls should eat out of windows!” This is a huge challenge given our weekday schedules. This week we even have “to go” items for our evenings that we will eat “on the go” but they are made from all real food ingredients. While eating in the car is not great we DO make it a family meal! I am super proud of that and love to hear my kids tell other kids that we do this! And I cannot tell you how far this is from the old Claire. My sister (a dietician) STILL cannot believe my transformation. I used to make fun of her for her refusal to buy pre-shredded cheese. 🙂

So challenge yourself and your family to not eat out for ONE week or maybe even a MONTH! If you are doing two drive thru meals per week and we estimate $25 per visit, you’re saving 50 bucks per week and eventually $200 per month! Make eating out a treat and not the norm! Seeing restaurants as undesirable and making better choices at the grocery store has made an enormous difference in my debt snowball. Our grocery budget is $300 per month! The bulk of that savings has come from a dramatic reduction in packaged foods and instead making things from scratch. Eating at home is always better than eating out and then I took it a step beyond and started making a lot of our food with unprocessed ingredients which keeps us full longer and cost less to make in the long run.

For those of you that might be interested, my go to meal planning websites are www.thescramble.com and www.momables.com. Check them out!