Dear Journal,
As part of my goals for 2016 I've decided I want to start writing in a journal again. However, after going back and reading some old college journals, I realize that every day is a bit much- too many unimportant details and it takes way to long to get through the madness to the important stuff. So I've decided once a week is probably good. However, also being realistic, I think that probably once a month is a good starting point, and then we'll go from there.
The month of January was relatively uneventful. Last year for my birthday we did an epic snowmobiling adventure while I was 4 months pregnant. This year there wasn't anything too spectacular, although we did get together with some friends (The Grants) and played games and had cake and icecream. It's always chaos when we get together because they have 6 kids, so we don't really actually get much time hanging out with them. But I guess that's how life goes when you have kids. You're life revolves around them and you are rarely without them.
We decided that one of our most important goals this year was to get on a budget. I've been tracking all of our financial spending for the last 2 years in Mint, and that has helped me to become aware of our spending habits. Michael and I have been spoiled because when we got married, we were both making about $80k/year at our jobs. So our first year of marriage we were buying furniture, our house, a truck for Michael's birthday and just really buying whatever we wanted. It was nice. However, once I quit Qualtrics and started working at Wells Fargo, that number we reduced by a third as I was only bringing in $40k/year. But still. $120k/year for two people isn't bad. Now that I am no longer working at all, and I don't anticipate any other major financial windfalls (I cashed out my Wells Fargo pension plan and 401k, and also received about $30k of life insurance money after mom died), it is imperative that we learn to live within the income that Michael brings home. You wouldn't think it would be that hard to live on $80k/year. But I've been surprised at where it all goes and how fast. So I'm really proud of my major accomplishment of breaking down a budget for about $4000/month, which is about Michael's take home after they take out taxes, 12% for 401k, insurance and HSA money. So really, take home or net that we live on is about $56k/year. But I'm proud to say that in our first month of budgeting and using envelopes for some of our categories, we stayed on budget and even under a little bit.
It's a little tricky with the paychecks not coming until the middle and the end of the month- we kind of need some cushion money to make up for the time we're waiting for the paycheck. But we'll get there I think next month.
It's kind of providential that we've been focusing on budgeting because things in the oil field right now are really scary. Oil is down to the lowest it's been in 30 years- less than $30/barrel. It's inevitable that Newfield will have layoffs again and you never know if it's going to be you or not. Michael's also been working less hours and not getting overtime, which reduces our monthly income by about a third. So for the month of February we're going to have to live on $3000. That's tricky when your mortgage and tithing take up one entire paycheck and the other one leaves you about $500 after bills and utilities to cover food and gas for the month. Crazy how he can have a gross earnings of $5000/month and we actually end up having to live on $500. The money just disappears.
Anyway, what I know for certain is that the Lord will take care of us because we pay our tithing, fast offerings, and are generous with others. Last year we paid over $12,000 dollars in tithing. That blows my mind! But I also know that it means the Lord will always take care of us. For example, this last paycheck was only for 89 hours for 2 weeks, when usually it's closer to 100-120 hours. After paying the mortgage ($1330) there was only enough to pay tithing ($440) and have $20 left. So I was a little stressed. But then we found someone to sell our puppy Max to, and that brought in $300- a miracle to get us to the next paycheck. It always seems to happen that way. A random check in the mail. An overage that's being refunded. A birthday check. A card from a friend with money in it. A payment for good driving behavior from the insurance, etc. etc. The Lord works in mysterious ways, but he always helps us to work it out.
All of that to say, along with our budget for the year, we also planned out vacation and travel plans. We've decided we can take 2 major trips per year if we can save $150/month for them. This year we'll be going to Texas for Thanksgiving (hopefully, if we can make more than $3000/month) and Alaska in the summer. If we stay on budget and Michael makes the targeted $4000/month so we can put aside the money. So that gives me great motivation to stay on target with our spending, but also to be ok with not having big plans for my birthday. So we just celebrated at home with some friends. Michael took me out to a nice lunch at Red Gravy, and it was just low key.
We did go and visit Jaime and Sean Bartchi up in Idaho for a day, and that was kind of my birthday getaway. We stopped at Lava Hot Springs on the way home and that was a lot of fun. Even Levi liked to splash around a little bit in the water, although it was too hot to put him all the way in. We really like Jaime and Sean. I feel like we get each other. Jamie and I have been through so much together as mission companions, wilderness therapy, being single, etc. And then Michael and Sean have the ranching connection. They blow our socks off with their emergency prep. We're totally jealous of their set up. They just finished installing a solar system that will run their whole house. They have a well with a 1000 gallon holding tank for water storage. They have a huge wood burning stove. Food storage out the wazoo. And clothing and shoes for every season and size for boys age 0-18. They are uber prepared. We want to be like that one day. We have a propane/gas 8000 watt generator that could run our house, but we still need to wire it into the house. We don't have any water storage yet. And we're pretty decent on the food storage. Although we really do just need more space to do much more of that.
All these dreams and so little money to do it all.
Some other significant medical things that have been going on. I have been making progress on figuring out my chronic cough and congestion, so that is hopeful. Got tested for food and plant allergies. I'm allergic to soy and barely (random) and a few weeds, dust, insects/cockroaches, all very common. But one thing I'm very allergic to is candida, or yeast overgrowth. So I'm trying to figure out if that's the reason for all the inflammation and mucus my body is producing. Also found out that my heart beats unusually fast, ever since the pregnancy. It's almost always above 100 bpm. I saw Dr. Staker about it and he said there's a possibility that the high blood pressure during pregnancy may have caused it and there's a chance it may have damaged my heart muscle. Let's hope not. They did blood work and everything was fine. Today I'm wearing a monitor for 24 hours that will record all of my heart activity to see what's going on. I hope it's nothing serious. I'm sure grateful for good health insurance and an HSA to pay for all of this.
Levi is 7 months old now and just learned to crawl yesterday. He is SO much fun to watch grow up. We just love playing with him and his smiles and laugh. He loves his dad and he loves going into the room to wake him up and jump on the bed. He's just the cutest little kid. Still no teeth. He wants to walk so very badly. He always insists on being held up. He hates sitting or being put on the floor. He's staring to be afraid of strangers or new situations. It takes him some time to warm up to a new environment before he starts to warm up and play and let people play with him. People just adore him because he is so stinkin tiny and cute. He was 14lbs at his 7 month booster shot appointment. I just love it. In 7 months of life he's gained 8 lbs. Love that kid.
Well, that's about it for January I think. Other than being worried to death about Michael's job. I really do hope things turn around in the oil field. But even if he lost his job, we'd be fine. We have savings and a really supportive family. His family had a cow slaughtered and gave us half of it- cut and wrapped- for free. It's probably about 200 lbs. of steak, ground beef, ribs, roasts, stew meat, etc. They are so incredibly generous.
For Febuary my goal is to get healthy eating and weight loss habits in place. I gained 35 lbs. with Levi's pregnancy and immediately lost 20lbs after birth and haven't lost a thing since then. Time to get off the extra 15 lbs and then get another 30 off as well. It's a little tricky to diet and exercise with a baby and a husband that you also feed. But I'm going to figure something out!
Here's to new beginnings. Happy New Year!
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