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Jan 13, 2022    |       5 comments

How I spent my $5 bills

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Some BAD readers may remember that for years, I have saved $5 bills. Like I don’t ever spend them. I have a container in my house where I put all my $5 and have for years. It’s just a game I play with myself as an “extra” savings. And I haven’t touched it for years.

Well, I take that back, I have Gymnast $15 last week from there to buy Starbucks for he and his ride to school on the first day of the semester. (When I took the kids, I would always buy them breakfast or a treat on the first day of class so just continuing this, in a sense, and I didn’t have any cash.)

Back to the story at hand…I have now completely depleted my $5 stash of this week. Let me tell you how…

Christmas for the twins

The twins turned 23 this past fall. And I was struggling with what to get them for Christmas big time last fall. So I finally decided on an experience gift, a mom and twins trip. (I’ve done lots of trips with the younger kids over the years due to sports or availability or whatever so don’t come for me for not being fair.)

VEGAS, baby!

Yes, for Christmas, I bought the 3 of us round trip tickets to Las Vegas and paid for two nights in a hotel on the strip (hello, $62 per night!) Thank you, Hopper, for the great deal. We flew there early Sunday morning, which means we landed there early Sunday morning. Then flew back early Tuesday morning, which means we were back here in Georgia by lunch. We had two full days of playtime!

Fun money

I didn’t let them take their debit cards. And I decided to empty my $5 savings to be our fun money. I did this for a few reasons:

  1. Didn’t want to take any more money out of my regular budget to pay for the trip.
  2. Wanted to have small bills to make it easy to spend smaller amounts on things versus getting stuck with only having big bills. (We do not have a local bank. So withdrawing from the ATM limits the bills I can get.)
  3. Great way to give us each some fun money without putting the burden on them or blowing my budget.

This meant, we each got $140 to blow however we wanted…when it was gone, it was gone.

I had a budget for food and rides to and from the airport included in the Christmas money.

Now to start my $5 savings again…and see what fun we can have with again in a few years time. Anyone else have this kind of rainy day savings thing going on that you don’t account for anywhere else?

 

 

Jan 12, 2022    |       4 comments

A Look Back at How Things Used to Be…

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We are interested in a house that needs some immediate work. We are negotiating the price but, worst case scenario, we will have to finance $30K. We are looking at creative solutions but for now, we are applying for a small bank loan so we can get an offer in before someone snatches this ugly house. *Thanks God for a contractor hubby who knows ‘good bones but ugly as sin’ from ‘bad bones but gorgeous’*

This ain’t a Buyer’s market folks.

The bank asked us to upload the slew of usual information. Paystubs, W-2’s, retirement accounts, etc. I carefully stacked everything together…then started crying. Clarification. Sobbing.

In 2014, we were in a bad spot. We hadn’t paid our mortgage in months. We were in an incredible amount of debt. We had no future…or that’s what it felt like. 2014 was our rock bottom. In complete desperation, we made a change.

This was the first time since then that I looked at every single corner of our finances and added up our net worth. It was very positive. No debt. Fully funded emergency fund. On track retirement. Cash for a house. Great job. Friends, the future’s so bright…I gotta wear shades. All the fighting through it. All the struggle. Worth every single ounce for this moment. It’s so easy to believe that you are too far gone. You’re too old. Too young. Too in debt. It’s just not true. Make the change. Your future self will be filled with so much gratitude, they’ll cry. I want to hug the 2014 me who said, ‘THAT’S IT! I CAN’T DO THIS!!’ and actually did something about it.

As I stared down at the stack of beautiful paperwork with tear-filled eyes, I said, ‘Well done 2014 Beks. Well freaking done’

Start now. Be done with debt. This moment is worth it.

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