Life's Little Updates

It has been awhile since I did a grand ol' life-in-general update that doesn't include the happenings of the boy child, so here goes:

Running: I haven't run since Sept. 25th due to my cough/ribcage pain/bronchitis I've had since Sept. 19th (not that I'm keeping track). I finally went to the chiropractor a week ago and I feel like $750,000. That last $250,000 will come when I'm finally done coughing. I'm just glad I can read a story to my sweet first graders without coughing through it now. I should have gone to see Dr. S. a long time ago, and I'm considering seeing him another time to really knock the crap out of my system. I do want to start running again once this cold is gone. I'm just nervous about running outside in the cold weather. Part of me thinks I should join Snap again, and actually go 3x a week so I can get my Health Partners discount.

Debt: People, I've never felt so at ease about being $32,549 in credit card debt. Yes, that is the current total. Why do I feel so good about it? I'll tell you why.
#1. Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. THE best $100 we've ever spent. Should've spent it years ago. In two months' time, it has more than paid for itself in the amount of money we've saved using Dave's techniques, advice, etc. Even if you aren't in debt and just want to live feeling more at peace financially, you should check it out.
#2. A budget. We've never had one. We thought budgets stifled fun. We found out that they are a great tool, and heck--obviously we've had way too much fun in the past. It's time to get serious anyway. We don't feel deprived. We feel in control.
#3. Envelope system. We have an envelope for gas and groceries. A certain amount of money goes into those envelopes--based on the budget--and that's what we have to spend. We get $100 for groceries every week. It doesn't seem like much, but e-mealz coupled with a few coupons stocks the cupboards. I'm the dork that punches numbers into a calculator while shopping to make sure I don't go over the $100. And I always save about $5 to buy milk from KwikTrip ($2.14 per gallon!) halfway through the week.
#4. At the end of December (or maybe before!) we'll have our baby step 1 ($1,000 in the emergency fund) finished. We actually just started putting money in our emergency fund last month, so when it's all said and done, it only will take us 3 months to finish that step. In January, we can start putting that couple hundred extra dollars a month towards our debt. This is huge!
#5. We're seeing huge decreases in our debt. We keep track of our debt balances on a whiteboard in our office. If I look back to June, our total was over $35,000. Now it's down to almost $32,000! We get our statement from Family Means every month, and some balances go down by $300. My most favorite thing is when I can change a number in the thousands place :)
#6. Credit card, shred it card. We have none--we shredded them all--and never looked back. LOVE the freedom.
#7. Paying cash rocks my socks.

School: I still have the sweetest class. I don't have huge behavior issues like I did last year. They're not perfect, but they surely aren't driving me bonkers like my class (read: a certain student and all the chaos that revolved around him) last year did.

This weekend, Colin and I are headed to Roch. I'm visiting my girlyfriends, and C and I are staying at my parents' to hang out. It's deer hunting weekend, so it'll be crazyfuntimes. I haven't partook in this annual tradition for probably a decade. I don't hunt deer. I hunt craft shows and the mall. Only this time, it's only window shopping.