finance Archives | Heavenly Homemakers

Sometimes being debt-free isn’t much fun.

When I look around at the world driving nice cars and eating at nice places and going on nice vacations I can get discouraged. But then I remind myself that I am choosing this! (And then I also remind myself that 80% of Americans are in credit card debt.)

“I’m choosing this!” is more than just semantics. That little phrase can change your life. Hear me out: If you’re on some kind of diet that doesn’t allow cake, it’s only because they didn’t know about Laura’s cakes. (Like this Low sugar Strawberry Cream Cheese Cake or this Low Sugar Banana Cake.) But let’s pretend you’re not eating cake because a diet book told you not to. So now you’re sad about not eating cake, and you sigh and feel bad for yourself because you really want cake and it’s all somebody else’s fault for deciding that high sugar and processed fats and carbs are unhealthy and you struggle with attitude problems every time you are put in a cake situation.

Let’s not blame the cake.

What if you turned the whole thing around and told yourself, “I’m choosing this!” Nobody is forcing me to give up anything. “I am choosing to make better food choices. Eating healthier options is my choice! I don’t even want all that cake because I know what’s in it, and it’s nothing good!” And then you can use your freshly ground flour to make your own densely nutrient cake and you can choose to have your cake and eat it too.

What if you wanted a new car instead of cake?

Something my husband and I have embraced the last few years of paying off debt is “We’re choosing this!” We are choosing to not spend money so that we can use it for other things. We could choose to not pay our bills, but then the electric company could choose to turn off our lights. If we choose to ignore our mortgage payment, the bank will choose to take our house. See how this works?

There are exceptions to everything.

I do understand there are times when life spirals out of control and things you had carefully planned fall apart. My sister was in a car accident years ago and was left with over $40,000 in uncovered medical bills. Sometimes the job situation doesn’t work out, I get it. But for the vast majority of Americans we have put ourselves in our own financial messes. We made the choice to move out of our tiny apartment to buy a house we really couldn’t afford. And we had such fun in that house! But if you give a man a house he’s going to want a dog to go with it… and a lawn mower and snow shovels and two cars and another phone and the internet and a video streaming plan and a grill and… and… before you know it, the $9/hour secretary job just isn’t enough.

We absolutely love being debt free.

I haven’t always had a great relationship with money. I would get so mad at people who said, “I can’t afford…” and yet they lived a lifestyle that said differently. But then I found myself saying, “I can’t afford…” and I realized it’s all in perspective. We made a combined total of $8000 our first year of marriage. As we worked more and made more we bought more and being debt-free wasn’t as much of a priority because we didn’t even know where the money was going. When I sit down and look closely at the choices we’ve made the past 12 years of marriage I can see huge financial mistakes we made that put us back. With each raise we started living just a little more comfortably. And that’s okay! That was OUR CHOICE. But to then go and say, “Well, I can’t afford…” doesn’t really make sense.

Being debt-free sometimes means making the choice to nail shingles on your own garage.

I’m choosing this.

When I say, “I’m choosing this.” It brings ownership back on my shoulders. Playing the victim isn’t possible with that phrase. I am choosing to save money! I am choosing to pay extra on the mortgage! I’m choosing to do family birthdays differently. I am choosing to live beneath my means because I have something better in mind for later. Here are some choices we’ve made and continue to make because we absolutely love being debt-free: Paying the internet bill instead of keeping chips on hand. Putting gas in the car instead of going out to the movies. Finding extremely loved used vehicles instead of buying new clothes for everyone in the family. Living in a 600 sq foot home until we got a better paying job in another state.

Being debt-free sometimes means making the choice to watch the sunset on a beautiful date on the prairie.

You get to choose!

I am giving you a phrase that has the power to completely change your outlook on life and money whether you are debt-free or not. “I’m choosing this!” You get to choose and you don’t have to be ashamed about it either. I am (97% of the time) not ashamed about the vehicles I drive because we bought them on purpose. We used to buy them on purpose because it was that or nothing. Now we buy used vehicles on purpose because we have really exciting plans for our money.

What are you choosing? Are you pleased with your choices?

My intention is most definitely not to make you feel bad about yourself or your money, but the opposite! If you find yourself feeling sad and thinking, “I can’t afford…” try pepping yourself up with a little “I’m choosing this!” attitude change. It could rock your world. And then go make cake. Because cake is yummy and actually quite affordable.

Laura’s friend Tasha is passionate about encouraging women. She’s a homeschooling mamaX4 who loves to make silly faces in the mirror with her toddler. She and her husband Ben have worked hard to be debt-free (except for their mortgage) and try to choose people over things everytime. She can be found playing on Instagram @hackettacademy and @heavenlyhomemaker and has too many hobbies to name. Most recently she’s been making chocolate cake for breakfast and sending her kids out to pick asparagus for lunch.

Wish you could actually save your cash instead of spending it? I love this helpful tip from Tasha!

Simple Way to Actually Save Your Cash

by Tasha Hackett

Saving cash sometimes doesn’t seem like much fun. Paying off debt was fun. So much fun? Yes. So much fun. We celebrated little victories all the time. “Yes! Another $1000 down!” or most often, “Another $50 sent off!” Woo-hoo! Paying off debt was so much fun, that we really don’t ever want to do it again. Therefore, saving cash for our next projects is almost as much fun. But, Tasha… How!?!?! How do you find room in your budget for all that extra cash?

There goes that “B” word again. That budget is a fantastic thing. If only I were disciplined enough to keep to a budget! Even after all these years, I’m still not super great at keeping one. If I want to buy a book for myself, and I do so love buying books for myself, I will usually buy it if there is money in the bank. My secret Pay-Off-Debt or Save-Up-Cash plan is simple:

Put the cookie jar on a higher shelf.

If you like to eat cookies and you’re sitting next to a jar of them, you are much more likely to eat them. If you take that cookie jar, place it up on a high shelf with a door that locks, it’s going to be a lot more work to get a cookie. Oh, you can still have one. But you’re not going to be able to sneak one as you walk through the kitchen on the way to the laundry room. You with me?

How badly do you want a cookie?

Just imagine! You have to go all the way to your underwear drawer to find the keyring with all the little keys, and then get a ladder and set it up, climb the ladder, carefully open the door, remove the jar, etc. I do like cookies. But I’m also a little bit lazy. So I don’t eat so many that way. And I surely don’t have kids asking for one all the time because not only is the cookie jar a lot harder to get to, but the kids don’t see it sitting there on the counter full of cookies! Not only does it have cookies in it, but it gets more put in every payday! (Because, in case you’ve forgotten I am talking about saving cash and not cookies. How silly to put cookies in a locked cupboard. Cookies are meant to be eaten… especially on the way through the kitchen to the laundry room. Especially these Super Soft Chocolate Cookies and Giant Breakfast Cookies and Sweet and Simple Cranberry Cookies.)

Saving cash is better than saving cookies.

Please don’t save the cookies. Eat them! You get a cookie! You get a cookie! Everyone gets a cookie! But the cash, we should be saving up some of it so we can buy the things we need. Like a new-to-us 1997 Buick, or a huge trampoline for the kids to work out some of their energy before they come back in for more cookies OR even possibly the down payment for the construction loan for the house we’re going to build next spring. (Yay!!!!!!)

No, I don’t lock my money in a cupboard.

I don’t have hoards of cash in my house. And if I did, I wouldn’t have just told you where it was. Sheesh. Simmer down, folks. But here’s the secret plan. You ready for it? Bank Transfer.

I actively take the money out of one bank and I electronically transfer it into another bank. Are you scratching your head wondering how this is helpful? Bank #1 is easy to access. I have a checkbook to Bank #1, I have a debit card for Bank #1, I have automatic payments and subscriptions, Paypal, and electronic payroll deposits go into Bank #1. The other account is difficult to get to: No check-books or debit cards. If I want money from Bank #2 I have to walk into the bank and request cash or transfer the money to Bank #1. (Warning: This is a terrible long-term savings plan. This is for funds you wish to access within a year.)

Here’s how we stash cash fast.

(Say that 10 times. I bet you can’t. I tried, I made it to four.)

Work (If we are paying debt or saving, we work some extra and hustle.)

Get paid

Deposit money into Bank #1

Budget for what is needed: Bills, Food, Gas, Clothes, School, etc.

Anything extra, no matter how meager, immediately transfer from Bank #1 to Bank #2

Congratulations! You just put the cookies out of reach

Repeat forever and ever amen. (Or until the cookie jar is full.)

Buy the thing with the cookies, I mean cash

In conclusion, stash the cash before rather than later. If I have an extra $5 hanging around, it will turn into a cookie and I will eat it.

How do you save money? Am I the only one who has to lock up the cookies on a higher shelf?

Tasha sitting at sewing machine Laura’s friend Tasha Hackett is a book writing, dress sewing, fitness coaching, instagramming, homeschooling mama of four. Whew! Sometimes she tries to do it all and then remembers she’d rather rest on a blanket in the grass and read picture books to her kids. When she’s not guest blogging here she can be found sneaking cookies instead of folding laundry, sewing instead of cleaning, writing instead of cooking, and reading aloud instead of teaching math.