Blow fund: yes. Diabetes: no.

We have been budgeting every penny for 9 months now.  And it is paying off big time for us!
By the end of this month we will have paid down $30,000 in debt... plus paid all of our bills (on time), fed our family of seven, saved for Christmas, saved for an emergency, and had a little fun along the way.

By the way, we live in an essentially one-income home, with two people who are willing to get any side job possible to help get to our goal a little sooner.  There are some weeks that we look at each other and say, "Hey there, who are you and what are you doing in my home?"  ;) Hotsauce is especially busy and seems to take his work uniform off just to put on his work boots and grubby clothes to go work on a remodel job.

And though we don't get quite as much time together as either of wish, we realize that this is the situation that we got ourselves into and it's our responsibility to get ourselves out.  Personal responsibility is incredibly important to us and we have found great joy in the process of paying off that which we owe others.

With that being said, one thing that I believe both Hotsauce and I would say, is that having a "blow fund" or "pocket money" is so incredibly important to both of us.  With every penny budgeted and no real "wiggle" room in the budget we need a little bit of money that is our very own to spend (or not spend) as we wish. 

We get paid our blow fund every two weeks.  It is a glorious day!  Hotsauce will spend his blow money quickly.  Typically on these gigantic cups of fountain pop from the gas station.  Or to bring his favorite wife a candy bar when she's had a rough day raising "his" kids! ;)  On the other hand I tend to save my blow money.  I use it to buy "bigger" items that the regular budget doesn't allow for ... typically for me this would be clothing (above the budgeted amount) or something old, rusty or with chipped paint!

The rules with our blow funds are pretty simple.  I get mine. He gets his. He doesn't get to tell me what to do (or not do) with mine. And, more importantly, he doesn't have to listen to me when I tell him what to do (or not do) with his... even if he's on the fast track to diabetes.  :P

I actually feel "richer" than I ever have before.  I have my own guilt-free money.  I know a lot of moms who would love to have this.  I must admit that in the beginning I had a really hard time using it on me, or at least only on me.  I would buy pizza for the whole family or a snack for the kids and I when we were out running around.  I have since changed my ways a little bit.  Those were old habits. Going out to eat because I was too tired (aka lazy) to cook or buying a bunch of junk food at a gas station because I wanted a candy bar (I love candy) and had to appease the turkeys by getting them something too.  Now I am seeing the benefits of saving my money for something that I really, really, really want.  That's not to say that I've stopped buying candy all together...

If you've started budgeting and haven't allowed yourself a little pocket money you may be doing yourself more harm than good.  Having a little space to treat yourself to something that you want will actually keep you on track and help you avoid discouragement.  So go ahead, give yourself a little treat.  Make sure that you're being reasonable in that amount too! 

So how much should you give yourself?  That's really up to you and your spouse (if you're married).  We each get $25 for a two week period.  In addition to that we give ourselves 10% each of any extra income that comes in... though we are considering dropping that to 5%.  It does make it a little easier for me when Hotsauce is working a second job, knowing that our time away will net us a little fun later on.  Though I'd much rather have the time with him!  Also anything that I make at Turkey Bottom Haven will give us each a little boost in our pocket money as well as helping to pay off debt.  It's a great motivation for those days when I'd rather just take a nap... or eat candy. ;) 

All this talk of candy.  Maybe Hotsauce isn't the only one on the fast track to diabetes.

Loving life.

The last few months have been a bit of a roller coaster for our online business, Turkey Bottom Haven, and on a few occasions I honestly wondered if this was the end of the line!

Turkey Bottom Haven is what we're calling our hobby business.  We are slowly trying to build it up into a business that we can run full-time.  But, we are not willing to go into debt to try to hurry the process along.  After all, the sole purpose of having an online business is to help us get out of debt!!

 As I've mentioned many times before my friend, Emily, was letting us sell items in her shop The Pickin' Shed... which was fabulous!  The advantage of a brick and mortar store was huge for us!  Lots of people love to touch an item before they purchase it and obviously an online shop cannot provide that benefit.  Early in the month we made a difficult decision and removed our remaining items out of The Pickin' Shed.  We made this decision based on a lot of different factors, but the biggest was that we wanted to go out on our own. 

It was time to establish our own identity. 

I was beginning to get lazy and thinking that as long as The Pickin' Shed was doing well that Turkey Bottom Haven would do just fine.   That's a great way to kill your business (and possibly your friendship). 

We are very grateful to Emily for her friendship and her desire to help us grow.  Very few people in this world desire to see others succeed, especially if they're in the same line of work.  Emily Smock is a quality gal and we kinda like her! :)

I've wanted my own shop for quite some time now... but I knew that we are in no place to pay rent and utilities and in general be strapped down with overhead costs.  But, I am also not comfortable having people come into our house to shop.  I love Turkey Bottom Haven, but my first job is protecting my babies and having strangers roam our house is potentially dangerous.

So Hotsauce came up with a plan.  He started clearing out one side of our garage and we turned it into a "shop" of sorts.  My business will remain an online shop while the garage stores our inventory.  But instead of having everything shoved into the space like a storage unit we decided, "Why not make it look like a small shop?"

And so we started filling the garage up and I kept thinking "I'm so glad this stuff is out of my house!" 

But, as soon as I thought that, I would think, "You know, I really like that shelf/cabinet/rug/quilt etc., maybe it should go back into the house!"

There are also a few items out there that will eventually need to be pulled out so that we can do some work on them.  For instance in the picture below here a bit there's a wonderful pie safe that needs a drawer repaired (and we are fortunate enough to have all the original pieces!)

So we find ourselves in a bit of a transitional time, but we are also finding ourselves in a season of God's blessings. 

This past Saturday we went to a building supplies auction and found 8 sets of lockers that we wanted... of course we had to wait several hours before bidding began on them.  While we were there a man recognized Hotsauce and started up a conversation with him.  When he found out that we were there for the lockers he told us that he had three lockers that we might be interested in.  They're pictured above.

He also told us that he had two semi-trailers full of items that we might be interested in and that we could go out the next day and take a look at them.

Holy.Moly.  He has a LOT of stuff!  Apparently his children don't want to have to deal with it when he's gone and that it would be a help to us both if we went through and got want we could use.  All he asked was for a fair price and we could take just about anything we wanted (with the exception of a few family heirlooms).

We only had an hour to go through his semi-trailers, but we made good use of that time and were able to find enough items to fill up one trailer load and the back of our Suburban.

We will be back though as there are many treasures that we had to leave behind on that first trip!  And once we're really able to start digging who knows what we will find!

I love this "job".  I love that it's helping us become debt free, but even more than that I love that Hotsauce and I are doing it together and both truly enjoy it!

God is so good to us!

By the way, if you ever make it up to our neck of the woods, please stop in and see all our goodies! :)

Locker Wars

There are some growing pains going on at Turkey Bottom Haven.

And some times I just want to throw my hands up in the air and just quit.

Returning home from our vacation means that we are forced to get back to business.  Something that we haven't spent a lot of time on recently.  Hotsauce has been very busy with remodel jobs and just doesn't have the time or the energy to head into the basement to work on the millions five projects that I have in mind for him.  Because he can't get to the projects that I want him to do, I'm kind of stuck. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.

I also haven't showed a lot of motivation to work on something else that doesn't require his help.  But, if I mentioned that it would be self-incriminating right? ;)

We recently purchased a set of lockers that has had a lot of interest from potential buyers.  This is normally a really great thing.  In my experience there are always people who express interest in something, but in the end something comes up and they never show up.  It is very frustrating from my point of view because I'm counting on that income.  It is also very likely that once interest is expressed from a potential buyer that I'm telling other people that it is "sold pending pickup." This squelches their excitement for an item and since they don't think they have a chance to buy it they move onto to another item.  When the original person doesn't show I have now lost two potential buyers and am left "holding the bag"...

The lockers in question! :)

Since the interest was so high in the lockers I began telling everyone who contacted me about them the same thing.  I made it known that they would be sold on a "first come, first served basis" and that they would not be put on hold for anyone.  In my opinion it's the only fair where to operate a business.  I even had close friends ask about the lockers and decided that "favoritism" is also a bad business practice that I would not get involved in.

They sold this morning.  Which I should rejoice in, right?  Well, after announcing that they were sold I had one lady that was obviously upset.  I had one set of lockers remaining and offered those to her at a discount.  Her response was that I was unprofessional and that she wouldn't be doing business with me again. :(

Ugh.

I had a feeling this was going to happen. 

My response was that I was sorry she felt that way.  I offered to look for additional lockers for her or that we would even be willing make a wooden storage unit for her at a discounted price.  I'm not sure what else I could do. 

So I will worry the rest of the day if there was a better way of handling it... because if there was I would love to do it better.  If this is just a part of the business I will worry the rest of the day if I'm cut out for it.  Because I honestly don't like hurting other people's feelings or having others think poorly of me.

I would also love it if the rest of you would weigh-in on this... how would you handle things?  Is it best to let people call dibs?  Is a first come, first served basis only a work in a "brick and mortar" store.  What should my response be to those who's feelings get hurt in the process?  I would seriously love to hear your opinions. 

Freeloaders

We just got back from an all-expense paid trip to Denver, Colorado.
Did you hear that Dave Ramsey?... an all-expense paid trip. 

Boo-yah.

Well, actually I like to think of it as a work trip... as in, we were paid to do several construction jobs for Hotsauce's sister and her roommate, Katie.
Did you hear that Bob?... I said her roommate, Katie.

And it's only fair that from this point on when I say "we did several construction jobs" you should interpret that as "Hotsauce made some counter tops and did a few odd jobs while I played Candy Crush on my new phone."

Hotsauce beginning to take out the old counter tops.

The sink came out...

I know what you're thinking... that's the largest pan of brownies I have ever seen.  Not, to disappoint you, but those are actually the counter tops drying.

The house slave was called in to assist in a lot of cleaning projects along the way.  Look how happy she is!! :)

It took some doing, but they finally went in!!  Our work here is done... excited to see what it looks like once they get the new back splash in!!

And now you know why I call him, "Hotsauce!"

 So all work and no play makes for a very dull vacation.  So between those pictures there was a little bit of fun... and a whole ton of eating out!!

I.love.eating.out.
No, wait... I.totally.lurvesauce.eating.out.

And more than that, I love eating out when Jes and Katie pay. ;)

The highlight of the week was going to our very first roller derby bout.  Jes "BobLoblaw" is a blocker for the Rocky Mountain Rollergirls.  And she's amazing.  I'm pretty much an expert at derby now, so if you have any questions you can ask me. Errrr, not so much.

It only makes sense that Bob has a better mustache than Hotsauce.  I'm also pretty sure that her legs are hairy too.

No jammer has a chance against the brick wall that is BobLoblaw.

 Of course the Rollergirls not just won the bout, they destroyed their opponent.  I would tell you who it was that they played... but other than that they were from Minnesota, I don't know what the name of their team is.

Did I mention that the RMRG won by more than a hundred points?  Well, they did.

I must say that all in all, this was by far the best all-expense paid trip that I have ever been on!  Even if it wasn't an all-expense paid trip it would have been an incredible trip.  I love Jes and Katie.  I love how much the four of us laugh when we're together and that we can have passionate disagreements discussions about potentially explosive topics and still think the others are pretty fabulous people.  

Plus, now I know what a Domo is and can start writing my book...

There's a new game in town.

Bean and Lou, our daughters, have made up a new card game.  It's a game with rules all their own ... you know, the kind where you can change the rules at any time so long as the other player agrees.

And if you're the oldest player, it's possible to change the rules at any time, whether the younger sister objects or not.  ;)

Though they've tried to explain the game in detail to me, the point of it still escapes me.   I'm not even sure if it's a game that you can win or lose.  But, they love this game and have even taught a neighbor girl how to play.

So, why blog about it here?

Because one object of the game is to not go into debt.  They make piles on top of a row of cards and these piles are your "debt".  How one goes into debt or gets out of debt makes no sense to me... but I love that the object is to not go into debt!

So what did they name their game?

You probably already guessed it, but they call it, "Dave Ramsey"!

Oh, how I love them!

Livin' like no one else is hard to do...

"Live like no one else so that one day you can live like no one else"... Dave Ramsey's voice echos in my head.  Some days that's all I need to strengthen my resolve, it literally allows me to put my head up high, throw my shoulders back and smile at what's to come.  Then other days it becomes a whiny little mantra in my head that I stumble over and become resentful of and I trip over my desire of the here and now.

Press on!

I'm finding the longer that this journey of financial freedom goes on the less excited our support people are ... as if to say, "That was okay for a time, but this is getting a little old."  And if they think it's getting old for them, I just want to shake them and says, "Hey, this ain't no picnic for me lady!!"

We are in a battle.  While we battle our own wills to do what we want, when we want (aka right now) we are also battling other issues of time.  And so it seems like time has become the one resource we need more than money to pay off our debt.

With five turkeys, an active church life, Turkey Bottom Haven, homeschooling, helping two other families with their finances, and numerous odd jobs for Hotsauce we are stretched thin.  Not to mention his full-time job (that has weird hours for two weeks out of five) and my regular household duties and just regular old life we have little time for much else. 

It seems to me that nothing really ever gets accomplished.

Nothing ever gets done.

For instance, we signed our oldest son up for Tiger Cubs.  Talk about a bad year to make that decision.  His meetings never fall at a "good" time, but instead always seem to conflict with a ministry opportunity or an opportunity to make a financial gain.  For instance, last night was his awards night and it got missed because Hotsauce is remodeling a bathroom for a really great price (more per day then he makes at his day job) and in the shuffle of getting that job Hotsauce didn't see an email from the Pack Leader about awards night. 

But, even if he had I'm not sure that things would have changed much.  We are determined to pay off our debt.  It is our conviction that debt is sinful.   We believe that God has forgiven us for the sin that brought us to this place.  Yet, there is always consequences for sin and we must take responsibility for those consequences.  Right now, that means that we have to give up some things that we'd really like to do.

I'm also looking for the sunshine in the consequences.  Hotsauce is really great at seeing sunshine, rainbows and puppy dogs while I just see a glimmer of hope.  He inspires me to keep fighting the good fight! 

It would be appropriate for me to highlight some of the things I'm thankful for in the midst of this battle!  Did you notice in this blog that I mentioned that we are helping two other families with their finances?  Who in a million years would have ever thought that we would be giving good solid advice to people about handing their money??  No one in their right mind would have asked us how to budget a mere seven and a half months ago!  Isn't God so good to use imperfect vessels? 

I'm also thankful for this side job that Hotsauce has gotten.  He did some work for a neighbor, who recommended him for this job putting in a tub surround.  Last night was his first night and while there the gentleman that he's doing the remodel for decided to hire him to do some tile work in the bathroom as well! And before the night was over it was determined that Hotsauce would also put in a wood floor for them!  How faithful is  God to us?? 

How have you been doing in your journey to get out of debt, build wealth, and help others?

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to court we go!

On Wednesday we were back in court trying to recoup the money owed to us for our rental house.  If you're unsure of what I'm talking about you can go here to read about our wonderful renters of old.

This time we made sure that we had done everything right.  Hotsauce poured over the Iowa Code Sections to make sure that everything was done by the book.

You bet your bottom that we sent our former renters a copy of the damages and the estimated amounts that were owed to us... both by regular mail and certified mail.  That list was itemized and exact.  And it was long!

When all was said and done they owed us for back rent for the month of February and 8 days of March, they owed past due amounts, they owed for damages to the house and for the labor to fix it all.  In all we determined that owed us $2,970.07.  Of course they had paid a deposit of $400 upon moving in so that dropped the total to a mere $2,570.07.

That's a lot of money kids.

We arrived at court with our girls in attendance.  Joy, the former renter, also arrived just in the nick of time. And let me tell you it was disgusting.

It's very hard to sit and listen to someone out and out lie.  And then in the midst of their lying to accuse you of destroying the house yourself (you know, because we're trying to sell it and want her to pay for all of remodeling we're trying to get done).

After all was said and done the judge said that he would review everything and take it under advisement and that we would hear back on his ruling in 2-3 weeks.

As we left the courtroom with our girls we were able to hold our heads high knowing that we told the truth.  And as we climbed into our truck and left town Hotsauce began praying.  He prayed that we would get what we deserved and that Joy would get what she deserved.  He acknowledged that God is in control of all things and that He could do whatever He wanted.

His prayer also proved to me what a great man I married.  Because I was really hoping that the girls would be preoccupied and we could start blasting that woman and her lying tongue!  Ah, but he continually points me heavenward, reminding me to set my mind on things above and not on earthly things!

Today as I went to get the mail I noticed that we received a letter from the courthouse.  Not knowing what to expect I cautiously tore open the envelope to find that the judge had made his ruling much sooner than expected.

While we were not awarded the full amount the judge did grant in our favor!  I believe that God granted Ben's prayer and we were awarded what He saw fit.  We are very excited to get past this and now are praying that they will pay what they owe and that we will never have to see them in court again!

Thanks to all of you who have prayed and supported us along the way!  Please keep praying that all of this will be paid and resolved quickly!