Welcome to my website. I created
this site a few years ago in our quest to become debt free, its
filled with all the things that I love that I can find at my finger
tips instead of searching through my bookmarks and files. I am
constantly adding new things and changing so please keep it booked
marked.
I am a south Texas
Christian mom raising a lovely family out on a
small farm with Pecans, Fruit trees, Garden, Sheep, chickens,
rabbits, etc it’s our dream come true out here. I have been frugal
most my life, I can't stand to be wasteful or paying for
something just because of a brand name, give me good quality and a
bargain any time.
I love to write which I do on occasion as a
free lance writer for a few home school and women magazines. I am
horrible at my grammar so it takes me a long time to create an
article but when it is done I think its pretty awesome and I
guess others think the same thing because they publish it. My
speciality is on Movie Unit studies, Geography and of course being
frugal. I love books which is why I guess I was a Librarian
Technician for 10years.
I am a home school veteran of 9 years we are
part of 4-H, a local Coop & Home school group. When people
ask me how do we do it all with homeschooling, farming and
running a household I say, "One day at a time, and we do our own
thing."
I love to work on my website its one of my
hobby’s along with my blogs. I hope y'all find it
interesting be sure to sign my guest book with nice things
:) and thanks for stopping by.
No I am not trying to sell you anything you
can listen for free you can borrow the books for free. I am just so
darn proud of what we had accomplished through these last
years I want to shout it out!!!!
We Started Jan 2006 Total debt was
$29,721.22not counting mortgage consisted
of one small home improvement loan, one larger consolidation loan
one credit card, one tractor payment , and two cars loans and other
minior small bills that needed to be paid up. As of Feb 21,
2008 we are now debt free!
Goal was to be paid
off before end Feb 2007 it didnt fall through it took us another
year to do this but in this time we paid for everything
cash and was able to help my folks when they needed us for
that I am truly thanksful
Jan-April 2006-Paid off $11,000 of
debt/ subtotal= $18,721.22 left (Both cars are paid off &
consolidation loan, we have $1000 for emergency fund) Wow we can do
this!
May 2006 -Paid off $11,887.48 of
debt/ subtotal= $17,833.74 left (Smaller bills are paid up we
are caught up completly) We can breath!
June 2006 -Paid off $13,226.45 of debt/
subtotal= $16,494.77 left (Working on Home improvement loan, Visa
& tractor payment) We are doing it!
July 2006 -Paid off $14,211.88 of debt/
subtotal= $15,509.34 left ( (Working on Home improvement loan, Visa
& tractor payment) Almost half way!
Aug 2006-Paid off $14,633.87 of
debt/subtotal =$15,087.35 left. Had a slow month we had to go
through our emergency fund for different small emergencys with our
car and to help my parents with their utilities, we were
down to only $100 in the account so Dave tells us to stop paying off
the bills again and start to collect the emergency money again. Some
things are automatically paid so a little was paid off for the
month. We are back up to $700 hopefully we will get all
$1000 next pay day. Glad we had it, for the emergencys its good to
pay cash.
Sept 2006-Paid off $15,343.94 of
debt/subtotal =$14,377.28 left. We are half way there to paying off
our debt Whooo!!! Hooooo! We are still collecting for our emergency
fund we had a few more emergency come up in Sept but we are blessed
to have the money to pay it cash. Both our visa credit card and loan
are under the $2000 mark Whoa havent seen that in a long time. Our
visa is getting scared they uped our cash account and sent us checks
to spend anyway we like. Silly them good try but no takers here, no
fools here anymore.
Oct 2006-Paid off $16,318.47 of
debt/subtotal=$13,402.75 left. Its been a very hard month its taking
it toll on us, its hard to save cause things keep coming up but we
are blessed to have cash each time and still continue to pay off our
debt. My family needs a vacation despertly. I want stuff but then I
talk myself out of it, just a little longer, stay focus, stay on
budget I tell myself over and over again. Its been 10 months we are
still doing it We have set up a Xmas budget already and saving
up for Thanksgiving food. Just breath and look ahead I tell myself.
On the bright side we looked at our retirement fund and we are doing
extremely well on it this year the interest on the mutal funds have
been 14% and its not even the end of the year yet. I hope it keeps
it up for next year.
Nov 2006 $16,769.35 of debt/subtotal=$12,951.87
left. We still have a credit card, a small house repair loan and a
tractor loan
-Dec 2006 $18,625.68 Paid
debt/subtotal=$11,095.54 left. For Christmas we put ourselfs on a
strict budget for spending and bought everything cash. The kids made
out pretty good so did we. One of our gifts to ourselfs was to pay
off our credit card. We were really proud of that fact when everyone
else around us was charging to theirs we paid off ours.
-Jan 2007 $19,055.48 Paid
debt/subtotal=$10,665.74 left Just have the small home repair and
the tractor payment left. Hope to pay off small home repair loan by
Feb.
-Feb 2007$20,041.81 Paid
debt/subtotal=$9679.41 left-Paid off the small home repair loan that
was around $3000 at the start. Took a much needed mini vacation
for the weekend to Houston. It was also educational as we took the
kids to the "HomeSchool Space Center Day" went to the beach, stayed
over night, toured around celebrated my husbands birthday. Was fun
and we paid CASH even for the rental car.
-Mar/April/May 2007$21,039.27
Paid debt/subtotal=$8,681.95 left and that is on Tractor
only. Life got really busy during this time and my computer
kept going down till I finally bought another one CASH I might add.
A lot of things, new roof for chicken coop, paid for parents septic
to be cleaned both car and truck repairs had to be paid, yearly
taxes etc...but we paid everything CASH so not so disapointed. We
still have our $1000 for emergency
too.
June/July/Aug/Sept/Oct/Nov 2007
$22,276.64 Paid debt/subtotal =$7,444.58 left
on Tractor only. Things have been rough with cars breaking down once
again, and my mothers going through cancer treatments then passing
away unexpectically. We have taken over payments for my fathers
electric and water now. We dont want him to forget and get them
turned off my mothers used to keep track of the bills and now he has
lost her income as well. Its an extra $175 around each month
extra now but we are blessed to be able to do this for him now. We
have not concentrated on anymore payments we are just trying to get
by day by day with our mourning.
We took a much needed mini
weekend vacation to the Coast, it was nice to get away and regroup
and just talk and spend time with each other. Sometimes it just has
to be done it has been a stressful year. We spent $500 on hotel for
two nights with beautiful views of the ocean, food for all day and
activities we did all this with cash. It was well worth it the kids
loved the sea.
We plan once again to get into a budget
for Christmas. Last year we did $150 for each kid and for
ourselfs it was $100. We have our emergency build up again.
This is taking longer then expected but we are still hopeful. They
lowered my credit card interest though I dont use it only to book a
hotel or rent a car then we pay cash.
Dec 2007
End of the year!$22,518.06 Paid debt
off/subtotal=$7,202.94 left on tractor only. One more month and it
will be two years for us, that we have been on this program with
Dave Ramsey. Dec has been a hard month but its not over with yet ,I
see hope for January. My car once again broke down thank goodness
for good ol'mechanics who are good Christians and honest with us or
it would have been more. My dishwasher and Dryer have been replaced
because of them breaking down. Our Tv was fixed we just got it 3 yrs
ago too! We also have to drain our septic and call a plumber because
we have a clog so bad we can't reach it ourselfs. Our insurance
fixed our roof but we still have to do the inside damage.
We
had Christmas gifts but we were on a budget once again this year and
it worked out really good. We replaced a dryer and a washer too. We
paid cash for everything! We have to get our septic tank emptied
still and other minor repairs for Dec.
Jan/Feb 2008
-Won't know the total till end of the month for last
payment on the tractor. I will post it when I find out its a
little under $7,000 I think. Hopefully we will have enough
saved up now to pay off tractor now "Cross fingers"
This is our last and final payment for our debt. Gosh its been two
long years since we started this program. It hasnt been easy, but
boy has it been worth it.
End- As of
Feb 21/2008-WE ARE DEBT FREE! -After two years and
one month I proud to say we are DEBT FREE from all our credit cards,
loans, bills etc. We are now on Baby Step Three -We are
saving up for 3 months emergency fund then slowly build up to the
six month will be our goal for the future. However right
now we will be taking a little break and will be saving up for this
coming July to a trip to Alaska/cruise/train for our 20th
annivesary. You can be assured it will be paid cash too
:)
Goal: Next will be: Baby Step
four-Where we up our life insurance for us, redo our house insurance
if need be and put more into our retirement fund. Baby step Five
-would be to fund our kids education Baby step Six-Pay off our
home early Baby steop Seven-Invest in mutal funds, wealth for the
future
New Bee hives & old queen replaced from our two hives
Buy more avacado, bannana fruit trees
Root cellar
Our cheese processing commercial kitchen
Pipes for canal
Gates around fruit trees to keep sheep out of them
Some friends have suggested I do this so I
said why not: I am slowly collecting money for my "Family
Cow" for the cow itself and equipment to keep one. I am saving
up, Ebaying things off to try to collect. Also the cost of keeping
this domain name hosted is a few bucks too. If you appreciate this
site and have a pay pal account $1.00 donation would go a long way.
Thanks!!! Also thanks for the wonderful folks that have given to me
so far its still in my paypal account sitting and waiting.
Frugal Country Mom 
