We all have that dream. Especially as little girls, that some day our prince will come. Provide an beautiful, worry free financial future. With the house, the beautiful decorations to fill it, the sound of little footsteps running on tile, wood or stairs and more. It is so challenging to achieve in this day in age with so many choices, so many items we use being disposable or expendable. Credit being so readily available at an age when most cannot manage their time well, let alone finances. I am hardly a frugal mama and if you are looking for ways to save money on purchases, I may not be your girl. I have done, and definitely shop around. However, I still enjoy the newest and latest gadget. While I know I am not alone, that most of us are or have been going through some of what my family and I are going through, I honestly hope to use this blog as a form of relieving my stress and almost as a form of therapy. This idea inspired by a friend's sister Chelsea Nicole Bielicki. While my situation may not be as entertaining (although there may be some drama), I hope to help others learn about finances, getting out of debt, improving credit ratings and more. I hope this can become a forum where my friends, family, and followers feel free to discuss some of the financial issues we are too afraid to ask. I have been there and know how challenging it is to find good quality information laid out in a way that is easy to understand.
I would like to start with a little of where James and I began. When we chose to get married, it was to be a long distance relationship from the start. He was Embry Ridlle AU in Prescott, AZ and I was hear in Phoenix living with his mom attending Scottsdale Community College. I loved it there and did well there. When I was at a Phi Theta Kappa Regional meeting, the advisor suggested I use my in-state tuition waiver to go to NAU, James and I could live in the Verde Valley and each travel. This was great in theory, not so much in execution. We made it mostly through one semester with the help of some very good friends in Flagstaff and Prescott so we could each have a place to crash if the drive became overwhelming, $400 a week in gas for the vehicles, topped off with all that comes with living together anew. I crashed. My cat got really sick and passed, and I melted down. I decided that we would move to Prescott and James would finish school and I worked. Yes, I gave up my full ride scholarship for the betterment of my family (turned down a few really good offers prior to that too). We did well there and James decided to join the Army in a college first program. It helped keep us afloat during the school year. I developed a budget that helped me see how spending now could adversely affect us later and it continues to be what works best for us almost 10 years later.
Our next endeavor was that we really wanted a house. James left for basic training just weeks after graduating from ERAU and I was 6 months pregnant with our first baby. It was horrible feeling so alone in the apartment we shared 100 mi away from the nearest relative. I was planning on moving back home just before Riley was born, but I was not going to make it. We had some amazing family friends that took me into their home for almost three months. They helped us in ways I can never thank them enough, especially emotionally. When we finally got to his duty station in Ft Lewis, WA or Tacoma, WA we had a small inexpensive apartment. It was not so bad while Riley was still an infant and James deployed to Iraq days before Riley's first Birthday. I finally got a great opportunity for employment with the local cable company, and it was an amazing environment to work in. I still talk to many of the people that were on my first team. As this was the first time we had a dual income, I worked diligently to improve our credit score. At the time, our bank had a tool that would monitor you credit, let you see the score, and best of all run simulators (ie. if I pay this off in one month, it will raise my credit score by this many points). While my bank no longer offers it to new enrollees, I have found another site, PrivacyGuard that works in a similar way, and has been very helpful.
During our deployment I raised our credit score over 120 points each and was able to get us into an amazing house upon his return. It was a great feeling of accomplishment then. We had some ups and downs financially, I had moved to Kiddie Kandids and they faced bankruptcy right before Elise was born. In fact, I think that was one of my worst weeks emotionally up and down ever. Monday, I get a call not to bother coming to work and don't expect the last two weeks pay. Tues James says he may be deployed to Haiti for between 2 weeks and 6 months or more. The next day, he says most of his unit is not going, and the following day I got approved for unemployment and we were going to be alright.
This is a summary of our history over the last 10 years. I will start on our journey that led us here and more details on our next endeavors! Happy Spending, Saving, or whatever it is you do.
Melanie
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