Christmas Fun for only $10

I like getting presents. So when Christmas-shopping time came around I didn't want to do what a lot of other couples do when money's tight - avoid buying each other gifts. Instead, we came up with an idea that turned out to be just as fun: 10 gifts for $10.

The rules were simple. You must buy 10 gifts for the other person but only spend a total of $10 for an average of $1 per gift. I spread my shopping out with a few things from Save-A-Lot, Shop 'N' Save, Dollar Tree and Deals. My husband did all his shopping at Deals.

Here's what we ended up with:

Gifts for Hubby

Gifts for Me

Post-holiday broke

So the holidays were a whirlwind. We were able to get most of our gifts for less or even free and hubby and I exchanged only $10 worth of gifts with each other (more on that later). Now it's the week between Christmas and New Year's and we're broke. The grocery budget is long gone and we each have less than $5 left of fun money. This year we'll spend New Year's eve at home, sipping on cheap vodkas and playing board games. You know - it just might be the best New Year's ever. Welcome 2010!

Everything and the Kitchen Sink

Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

                                           - Murphy's Law

That Murphy is a bastard. Somewhere he's laughing it up as my husband and I struggle to keep up with all the sudden repairs needed to our house.

This summer? The downstairs toilet broke. Not a huge deal - just the chain between the handle and the plunger and since we don't really use our basement much we just ignored it. But last night when we had a drunk friend passed out in the upstairs bathroom floor it became a more urgent issue. Still, it's one we can handle - a cheap, easy fix. No big deal.

Last weekend the ice maker in our refrigerator broke. It was crappy anyway with its hollow little ice cubes and the prong things always getting stuck in the tray, but Sunday morning as water was pouring (yes, literally pouring) out of the fridge onto the kitchen floor it became an emergency. Our solution? We never liked that stupid ice maker anyway. We took it out and headed over to Target to get ice trays. Only old fashioned ice for us from now on!

Last night the kitchen sink clogged and clogged hard. I made butternut squash fries (from one of the Hungry-Girl cookbooks) which meant quite a bit of squash peel and pieces ended up in the garbage disposal. All was well until I started the dishwasher and the sink filled with water. In a panic I stopped the dishwasher, and the water in the sink went down. I frantically ran water in the sink and started the disposal but it only added nasty food debris to the mix. Suddenly, water's pouring from the dishwasher. I open it and the bottom is full of nasty water. Yuck!

The hubby's going to try to take the pipes apart or something today. We'll see how that goes. The last thing I want to do to our budget is call a plumber. Please, house, please!

Budget, Budget, Budget

As part of my master plan to pay off all $54K in credit card debt, we now must stick to a strict monthly budget. Here are the highlights:

• Bills - $2220 covers everything from out mortgage and car payments to our gym membership. It's all the bills we get every month except for credit card bills.
• Gas - $200 total for both cars, but if we go over, we go over.
• Groceries - $200 I didn't realize how hard this would be. To ease the pain I've started shopping mostly at Save-A-Lot, supplemented by Shop 'N' Save for the things I can't find.
• Pet Food - $60 covers 2 dogs and 1 cat for at least a month - I won't settle for anything cheaper than Purina One, though I used to feed only Natural Choice until their prices jumped nearly $10.
• Savings - $433 is an average for the auto transfer that happens between our checking & savings accounts every 2 weeks.
• Fun - $100 each for my husband and I. This counts going out to eat, shopping and beer, wine and liqueur.

This, plus the money we're devoting to our credit cards will hopefully have us credit card debt-free by the end of 2012.

First minor setback (Why I’ll never go to Midas again)

On July 1 (according to the receipt) I took my car to Midas for new brakes. They told me I should get new rotors and, during a moment of temporary insanity I agreed. Fast forward five months and here I am at Midas again because my brakes are shaking and lumpy.

Yes, I said lumpy. Yes, the mechanic had to come out and ask me what lumpy meant. So what? It felt like my tires had a big old lump in them that I had to drive over every few seconds. Lumpy. Period.

Unfortunately the warranty on Midas rotors is only 90 days. 90 DAYS! For rotors? Yeah well my brakes were jacked after only a few months, but I, avoiding car repair like, well, car repair, put off my visit to Midas until it was too late. Now the owner/manager has offered to “split it with me.” Instead of the full rotor replacement price of $246.91, I’ll pay $123.46.

No, Mr. Midas, this just isn’t good enough. Five months for rotors is absolutely ridiculous and you’ve now insured I’ll never bring my car to your shop again. And I’ll blog about it, and tweet to my 600 area followers and tell my office of 200 to never go to your place for service. Boo, Midas. Boo.

Save-A-Lot Rocks!

This past weekend I discovered what I can only describe as a magical place – Save-A-Lot. Glorified ALDI’s you say? Maybe, but at least they let you use their carts without a deposit.

I made my way slowly down each aisle in a state of wonder and amazement. 3 pounds of oranges for $1.50, red peppers only $1.29 and a strange yet fascinating 5 meats for $19.99 deal I just couldn’t pass up.

Yes, from now on Aldi’s will be my first stop when it comes to grocery shopping with a follow up trip to Shop ‘N’ Save for whatever I can’t find. Did I mention my monthly grocery budget is now $200?

Oops!

It's my fault - mostly. Not that I was the one spending all this invisible money alone, no, just that I didn't ever make our situation clear to my husband. I pay the bills. I log in to our online banking to see what's what. Sure, I'd buy clothes, go out for happy hour or lunch every now and then, as would he and it didn't seem like we were spending that much. But sometimes I'd check our bank account balance and oops! Not enough money for groceries. So I'd use the card. (And I can be quite the grocery shopper!)

Well it piled up over the years until one day I realized our debt was ridiculous. Actually, Citibank in all their evil credit card-y ways opened my eyes, so I guess, maybe, I should thank them. In early October they sent me a letter - one of those we're-changing-your-terms,-decline-now-or-we-own-your-soul-forever letters. They were raising my interest rate from a ho-hum 14.99% to a whopping 29.99%! If I'd had a lower balance, maybe I'd have ignored it, after all, I'd had my Citicard for nearly 10 years making it one of my oldest forms of credit. Unfortunately, the balance on that card thanks to several transfers was over $19,000. The minimum payments with an interest rate near 30% would be impossible for me to pay.

Meanwhile my husband ranted and raved about how we needed to pay off our debt. "Is it going down?" he'd ask. "How much do we owe now?" I'd push him off, saying I didn't know exactly, or it'd take some time to find all the current bills and add it all up, but I knew. I had a general idea and that was precisely why I didn't want to tell him. I was afraid of what he'd say.

One night, though, as talk turned to money and then to yelling and tears, it came out. In a ridiculously round about way I admitted that we now owed over $50,000. And that, thankfully, has led to change. It's slow going for sure, and the journey will be a long one, but we're making changes and putting plans into place. I'll keep you updated - as I hope this can be a lesson to anyone out there who lets the plastic flow a little too easily.