Saying Bye to Credit Cards & Learning to Buy Wisely

So this past year while Will has been deployed we have been using the extra money to pay down our credit cards. This is a major feat seeing as how high they were. I am not ashamed to say they were around $30K since we knew what we were doing when we charged them up! I still consider it a very good investment! We had all the cards paid off when I got to Germany, but when we found out they were closing our base and we'd be heading back to the States within 6 months we tried to fit in as many 'must see' places as we could! Obviously, none of it was saved for, but seeing as we didn't know if or when we'd have such a great opportunity again, we went and put it all on credit cards!

No, we didn't spend $30K on travelling. After we moved to Washington, we bought a house and immediately started working on it for little upgrades. Then we found out I wasn't going to have such an easy time finding a job. This was for two reasons, lack of experience (Everywhere in my field required 5 years experience for an entry level job!), and the economy tanked within 2 months of our buying our house! We also were told not long after getting to WA that we wouldn't likely be able to have kids without major medical intervention. (IUI or IVF) All of a sudden we went from having a plan for getting rid of the debt within a couple years to having even more in the form of a brand new home that was suddenly seriously upside down and BAM, I was pregnant!!

Needless to say we didn't have all the extra money we were counting on to pay down the cards in the form of my having a career- they more or less just sat for 2 years! But, now we've gotten rid of the house, moved, had another baby, and are most the way through a deployment! And I'm proud of what we've accomplished this year! One card is paid off, one is down by half, and the last is even down a little! I'm paying them off/down in order by highest APR. This still leaves us with a considerable amount of debt, but we've gotten rid of about half of it! And if we can plan right and not use them, we'll have them all completely paid off inside 3 years! (unless we go through another deployment- then it would be shorter!) And best of all, without having to go without too much that we're use to having!

While I don't plan to go as far as to say we'll get rid of them and never use credit cards, I plan on using them for major purchases and only when I have a plan for paying each purchase off. In other words, they will be our own personal lending authority.

Now for how I've been learning to spend wisely. I am really proud to say that this past month or so I have gotten everything planned out for our trip home in December. While its not cheap, I'm pretty proud of how well I have done in planning so that we can have a great trip at a great price and without breaking the bank! So here's the breakdown:

We are driving from KS to FL. The trip is a little over 3000 miles round trip! Obviously with a 2 year old and a 1 year old, it will be a long drive, so we are breaking it down into 3 days each way. I have broken the trip down so I know about where we will be stopping each day and looked into hotels there, plus estimated gas prices. All together for the trip alone we are looking about $1000.

We will be boarding the dogs, which will be around $600.

 Our hotel in Clearwater is $500.

And our Disney trip all together, including our tickets, hotel, and most our meals is $900.
I know you're asking how are we doing 4 days in Disney, staying on the property for only $900. Well, Disney loves the military and this year's Salute the Troops is a 4 day park hopper pass for $160 or something like that, plus they are doing 40% off at any of their hotels!! Add Sea World's Salute the Troops is a free day admission, so we'll be doing a day there also!! Pretty awesome huh!?! We do love Disney and Sea World and couldn't manage going if not for these discounts!

That rounds out at about $3000!! Thankfully, the Disney part is already fully paid for!! That puts us down to $2000!! So, I have the next 3 months to save $1000, and the last $1000 will come from regular pay for the month of December and beginning of January. (I say beginning of Jan. because I pay for the dogs when I pick them up the first week of Jan.!)

Now, this does mean I won't be putting much extra towards the credit cards, but if I don't set the money aside now and choose to put the extra on the cards, we'll just end up putting part of the trip on the cards and being back where we are now at the beginning of January!! lol Did you follow all that!?

I have also figured out gifts for everyone and how we can get decent gifts for cheap! Here's the list minus what we're doing for the parents since I don't know if the Moms read this!
     - Keirnan & James: Keirnan is getting a Tag Jr, James is getting 2 fridge magnet toys. These total under $100. We're not going big for them since we're taking them to Disney and they are still both small enough to not know anything else. (I hope to actually keep them from ever expecting too much!)
     - Grandparents (x3 sets): Personal Calenders- free I have enough Pampers Gifts to Grow points to get 3 of these calenders from Shutterfly!
     - Parents (x3 sets): Free! Well, not technically free, but we paid for everything in pieces over the past year or so out of regular pocket money!
     - Other family and friends: Ok, I still have to figure it out, but I have a few ideas and if I start now it will come out of pocket money!

Overall, I'm really proud of how I'm pulling all this together! Add to it, I've already got the family's Halloween costumes and got them all on major sale and with a free shipping code, so the 4 costumes total out at about $100!

I also got the decorations and table ware for James' birthday party on clearance for $50! I still have to figure out what we're getting him for his birthday, have to get the goody bag stuffings, cake, and other food, but think I can keep that pretty cheap!

That leaves What to get Will for his birthday and Christmas!! He wants the front windows of the truck re-tinted because we had to take the tinting off in Germany. So I need to price that and then just figure out Christmas!! Eek!! He's the hard part! The rest is easy breezy!!