Wow it has been years and years since I have posted. Sorry it's been so long. 

  Recently I have been inspired and decided that I have to get our finances under control. Since moving to Iowa and retiring from the military we had NO and I mean NO savings. We moved into a house that has been a money pit!! The former owner thought he was a DIY expert. Little did he know that he wasn't by any means. Plumbing, flooring, electrical, you name it and he screwed it up. But I digress.......

   Recently my daughter Morgan's van was hit while she was driving home from school. The kid hit her directly in the driver' side rear wheel. He drove away with no significant damage. We on the other hand have to pay our $500 deductible. The bill total is up to $1460.00 and they haven't even looked at the suspension. I decided to claim it on our insurance because apparently the other insurance company can refuse to pay. Why do we have insurance then? I knew we were at risk of this when the lady contacted my insurance company, not me, to ask that they don't report it to her insurance company. That she wanted to pay for it out of pocket. The reason was she, her daughter and her son (who hit Morgan) all had been in accidents. Hmmm this doesn't sound right. So the insurance company said I could, if I wanted to, write up an agreement with the lady for her to pay out of pocket but when she got the bill she didn't have to ultimately pay it unless I sued her. Which at that point left me no recourse but to pay the entire amount to get the car back. 

  We got into a panic and wondered where we could pull that money from. We have no savings....what now? We have jiggled some numbers and even though this time of year is super busy with constant birthdays and Christmas we managed to pull it out of our finances. 

  I recently spoke to my friend on the far east coast and she had talked about the debt snowball. I looked more into it and it seems doable. I have been sitting here for two hours this morning making out a budget from now until December 2017. I think this is a brilliant way to tackle debt. I can have  three of four credit cards paid off by March. The other will take a few months more to pay off. We will be able to start a savings account and an emergency fund. Once those are in place I can start making double payments on the cars to pay them off faster. 

  I will start a new at home job in October, hopefully if they can contact my references. I haven't factored in this new income to the budget yet but I am excited to see how this would accelerate our plan. We have two kids entering college in the fall of 2017. We recently purchased 2 newer vehicles. Morgan was put on our car insurance a few months ago. Noah will probably be added to the car insurance by next summer. So lots more money floating out the door. It's funny when you make more money you somehow always are at $0 by the end of the month...lol. I don't point this out to brag but to show that I am positive this will work. It will take dedication on our part to stick to our budget. We have always been a little splurgy (yes I made a new word). 

  I think the most important thing we can do is give our finances to God. We hadn't tithed in a long time. Recently we started tithing again and the blessings have started to come. We have been shown throughout our lives many different times that God has been faithful in this area. If we just trust in Him and give Him back a portion He will do amazing things. He is such a wonderful father. I hope that if you believe in Him, because He believes in you, that you will trust Him. Even when you don't think you can afford it. Give any amount even if it's only a dollar. Take that leap of faith and He will bless you more than you can imagine.  

                          May God bless you............. Julie