Frugal Finance Part III
Life after College
Our 1st child, Richie was born one year before I graduated. That was hard. Want to know what my High School Memory Book said for my life goals?
1. Go to College
2. Enjoy my career
3. Maybe get married and start a family.
I was only going to have one child. We had six. I married while still in college. Well, the best laid plans.
So, we were married in 1987, Mike graduated and got his 1st teaching job in 1988, Richie was born in 1990, and I graduated in 1991. Leigha was born in 1992, and Tim in 1993. We were living at poverty level and were burdened with school and credit card debt
That is when a Christian Financial Counselor helped us on the way to financial freedom.
Here is how we did it:
1. A detailed expense/income evaluation
2. A detailed budget based on 2 savings and two checking accounts.
3. A debt snowball.
4. Tithe first and foremost. *A note of caution. I'm not talking about the prosperity gospel here. All we could realistically give was $25 each pay period.
5. We also relied on food stamps and Medicaid during this time.
Next time: the nuts and bolts of Solomon's Budget.
Thursday, August 6, 2015
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Frugal Finance: Part II
Juggling Full-Time College and Marriage
***Correction from my previous blog. My wonderful husband corrected me on my last point. It is called a 529 Education Plan, not a 509k as I had stated. It works like an IRA for Education. Just beware that if you use it for anything other than education for the stated benefactors, you will be taxed plus there is a 10 percent penalty. You can take one child off and put another on if you desire, however.
So, here I was one year on my own after high school, 19, one failed engagement and on my way to my dream, college, at last. Marion College was my choice as I had an entire church backing me spiritually and financially. After I got over that initial fear factor of the first semester and Mike helped me with the "Will There's a Will, There's a Way" study helps; I never looked at another C or worse the remainder of my college days.
Mike and I met as a result of his being the leader of my freshman orientation group. He smashed my finger in his car door preceding a scavenger hunt meant to get to know Marion better. Mike felt so bad that he asked me out on a date. I accepted, he was a no show. Apparently mommy was his alarm clock and she felt it was more important that he get his rest. Mike worked 3rd shift at a countertop factory. He slept after classes. He did ask me out again, set his own alarm this time and we had a wonderful time. The rest is ongoing history!
***Please pray for Mike's mother, Sonia. She is a dear, godly woman to all of who has always provided inspiration. Sonia is currently on a ventilator, but breathing 70 percent on her own at this time. Her health been in state of decline since having a tumor removed from her colon in November. Dehydration, illness and then pneumonia came after that. At this time she is alert but not responding to touch.***
So on August 28th, 1987-I became Mrs. Kathy Wolfe. It was exactly 365 days from the moment I first met him. Here is our frugal management #1 Look at all your options before renting or buying a house. Our 1st house was bought through an estate at the bank. We looked at many different options. It didn't make sense to rent and let someone else take our money. Renting isn't cheap either. We looked at some duplexes thinking that would be a good option. We could rent one side, to pay for the mortgage, and live in the other side. Then Mike found a gorgeous 100 year old 2 story home that was being offered through an estate sale. We decided to make bid and won. Then we put up a secured loaned. Our payments: $121.27 verses: rentals $350-$400 monthly.
#2 It really is romantic to if you can both work less and get to know each other more. Mike worked at the countertop factory full-time during the summer, but that 1st year after we were married, he only did part-time. I worked part-time to. He also had some music students for a little extra income. We made an average of $700 a month. My income went into savings for emergencies. This gave Mike and I the time to create moments that have continued to make our marriage strong for nearly 27 1/2 years and through 6 children. Three are in college, three at home, and we've home schooled them all! The college students are honor roll.
#3 Budget! Budget! Budget! Ours was simply one of those budget books you buy at the store. It worked. When life changed like career and kids eventually came along we veered from this important tool and it strained everything. more on that in another post.
The wedding: budget savers for this special moment. I drop my jaw at the extravagant amount couples spend on there weddings now days! How we had a frugal wedding in my next blog.
***Correction from my previous blog. My wonderful husband corrected me on my last point. It is called a 529 Education Plan, not a 509k as I had stated. It works like an IRA for Education. Just beware that if you use it for anything other than education for the stated benefactors, you will be taxed plus there is a 10 percent penalty. You can take one child off and put another on if you desire, however.
So, here I was one year on my own after high school, 19, one failed engagement and on my way to my dream, college, at last. Marion College was my choice as I had an entire church backing me spiritually and financially. After I got over that initial fear factor of the first semester and Mike helped me with the "Will There's a Will, There's a Way" study helps; I never looked at another C or worse the remainder of my college days.
Mike and I met as a result of his being the leader of my freshman orientation group. He smashed my finger in his car door preceding a scavenger hunt meant to get to know Marion better. Mike felt so bad that he asked me out on a date. I accepted, he was a no show. Apparently mommy was his alarm clock and she felt it was more important that he get his rest. Mike worked 3rd shift at a countertop factory. He slept after classes. He did ask me out again, set his own alarm this time and we had a wonderful time. The rest is ongoing history!
***Please pray for Mike's mother, Sonia. She is a dear, godly woman to all of who has always provided inspiration. Sonia is currently on a ventilator, but breathing 70 percent on her own at this time. Her health been in state of decline since having a tumor removed from her colon in November. Dehydration, illness and then pneumonia came after that. At this time she is alert but not responding to touch.***
So on August 28th, 1987-I became Mrs. Kathy Wolfe. It was exactly 365 days from the moment I first met him. Here is our frugal management #1 Look at all your options before renting or buying a house. Our 1st house was bought through an estate at the bank. We looked at many different options. It didn't make sense to rent and let someone else take our money. Renting isn't cheap either. We looked at some duplexes thinking that would be a good option. We could rent one side, to pay for the mortgage, and live in the other side. Then Mike found a gorgeous 100 year old 2 story home that was being offered through an estate sale. We decided to make bid and won. Then we put up a secured loaned. Our payments: $121.27 verses: rentals $350-$400 monthly.
#2 It really is romantic to if you can both work less and get to know each other more. Mike worked at the countertop factory full-time during the summer, but that 1st year after we were married, he only did part-time. I worked part-time to. He also had some music students for a little extra income. We made an average of $700 a month. My income went into savings for emergencies. This gave Mike and I the time to create moments that have continued to make our marriage strong for nearly 27 1/2 years and through 6 children. Three are in college, three at home, and we've home schooled them all! The college students are honor roll.
#3 Budget! Budget! Budget! Ours was simply one of those budget books you buy at the store. It worked. When life changed like career and kids eventually came along we veered from this important tool and it strained everything. more on that in another post.
The wedding: budget savers for this special moment. I drop my jaw at the extravagant amount couples spend on there weddings now days! How we had a frugal wedding in my next blog.
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Frugal Finance Part I
I thought a little journey through my life living frugally would be a neat helpful article so here goes.
College Days:
For that college bound high school graduate whose single parent family can't finance your higher learning or parents who won't: Get a job early, in high school and start saving. I knew early on I was college bound. It was a dream that my grandmother instilled in me. I amassed $3,000 one summer in 7th grade by raising 3 pregnant guilts and selling their piglets at the sale barn. There were also the 100 chickens raised from chicks picked up at the feed store. The eggs went for only 50 cents a dozen in the 70's, but it was well worth it to my neighbors and friends who bought from me and put quite a stash in my pocket after feed expenses. In high school, I mucked barns for injured and retired race horses and exercised them to. My mother wouldn't let me or the owner would have taken me to the racetrack to work there to warming up those great animals. After graduating, I moved in with my grandmother and got a minimum wage job through a job works program. Then I had a windfall when a lady friend, whose son I was sweet on, let me know the factory she worked at was hiring. I thought I was rich at $3.90 an hour, many times working 50-60 hours to finish important contracts on time. I made about $130 plus a week. $13 went for my church tithe, $20 for groceries, and about $10-$15 for intertainment. I was only 18 you know. The rest was tucked away safely into a savings account. Then my mom, who didn't like the idea of my riding my bike to my job and also didn't think I was looking very hard myself, called me one day and said she bought me a car. She had spent money to put some hoses and things on it and could I make out a check and come it? Here's the real kicker, the tires were bald and it was a stick shift! Guess who didn't know how to drive one. Quite a two-hour drive back home in a smurf colored AMC that I had not picked out, asked for, and was expected to pay for. Now I had to add insurance and the weekly tank fill-up to my list. It was a couple of months before I drove it though, saving up for 4 new all weather tires. Ask your church if they can help out. Many denominations have funds set aside for their colleges. I had great youth leaders who saw my dream and canvased the members for me. They even helped for the first year after my husband and I married. The Wesleyan Church matches up to so much of what local membership puts into the scholarship fund to send their kids to the denominations colleges. Don't forget to fill out your FASFA. I had to obtain my mothers financial information. She was not happy about this. At the time of the application I hadn't been on my own for a year yet and you had to be independent for two. Check out scholarships and grants. If you had great grades in high school you'll have many opportunities to apply and win these. My husband had many scholarships through high school, so make sure you apply to all of them. Remember that job through job works, it was at the YMCA as a lifeguard. I applied for and got $500 each semester through them. The local Polish Heritage Foundation on the other hand, didn't think I was Polish enough (my fathers side) and I never even got a response to my submission. I mention both because you get some, some you don't. I also qualified for the Student Work Program and took on a part-time job off campus. Mike worked a full-time job to help pay his way. I had a $250 loan that 1st year out of a $7,000 full-time room and tuition. Not bad.
509K Here is one to keep in mind if you have children. We started one in Kansas that matched us dollar for dollar and we paid into it the maximum amount allowed for 3 years. We have invesed about $5000 and it has grown to about $10,000. Our 2 oldest children are named as benefactors currently, but they're as spend thrifty as we are and haven't had to use any of it yet. I'll talk more about them and kids in college in another blog post. The beauty of this 509k is that we can transfer to name another child as benefactor if we want any. That is a handy thing since we have a total of 6 children.
Next Time: Juggling Fulll-Time College and Marriage
College Days:
For that college bound high school graduate whose single parent family can't finance your higher learning or parents who won't: Get a job early, in high school and start saving. I knew early on I was college bound. It was a dream that my grandmother instilled in me. I amassed $3,000 one summer in 7th grade by raising 3 pregnant guilts and selling their piglets at the sale barn. There were also the 100 chickens raised from chicks picked up at the feed store. The eggs went for only 50 cents a dozen in the 70's, but it was well worth it to my neighbors and friends who bought from me and put quite a stash in my pocket after feed expenses. In high school, I mucked barns for injured and retired race horses and exercised them to. My mother wouldn't let me or the owner would have taken me to the racetrack to work there to warming up those great animals. After graduating, I moved in with my grandmother and got a minimum wage job through a job works program. Then I had a windfall when a lady friend, whose son I was sweet on, let me know the factory she worked at was hiring. I thought I was rich at $3.90 an hour, many times working 50-60 hours to finish important contracts on time. I made about $130 plus a week. $13 went for my church tithe, $20 for groceries, and about $10-$15 for intertainment. I was only 18 you know. The rest was tucked away safely into a savings account. Then my mom, who didn't like the idea of my riding my bike to my job and also didn't think I was looking very hard myself, called me one day and said she bought me a car. She had spent money to put some hoses and things on it and could I make out a check and come it? Here's the real kicker, the tires were bald and it was a stick shift! Guess who didn't know how to drive one. Quite a two-hour drive back home in a smurf colored AMC that I had not picked out, asked for, and was expected to pay for. Now I had to add insurance and the weekly tank fill-up to my list. It was a couple of months before I drove it though, saving up for 4 new all weather tires. Ask your church if they can help out. Many denominations have funds set aside for their colleges. I had great youth leaders who saw my dream and canvased the members for me. They even helped for the first year after my husband and I married. The Wesleyan Church matches up to so much of what local membership puts into the scholarship fund to send their kids to the denominations colleges. Don't forget to fill out your FASFA. I had to obtain my mothers financial information. She was not happy about this. At the time of the application I hadn't been on my own for a year yet and you had to be independent for two. Check out scholarships and grants. If you had great grades in high school you'll have many opportunities to apply and win these. My husband had many scholarships through high school, so make sure you apply to all of them. Remember that job through job works, it was at the YMCA as a lifeguard. I applied for and got $500 each semester through them. The local Polish Heritage Foundation on the other hand, didn't think I was Polish enough (my fathers side) and I never even got a response to my submission. I mention both because you get some, some you don't. I also qualified for the Student Work Program and took on a part-time job off campus. Mike worked a full-time job to help pay his way. I had a $250 loan that 1st year out of a $7,000 full-time room and tuition. Not bad.
509K Here is one to keep in mind if you have children. We started one in Kansas that matched us dollar for dollar and we paid into it the maximum amount allowed for 3 years. We have invesed about $5000 and it has grown to about $10,000. Our 2 oldest children are named as benefactors currently, but they're as spend thrifty as we are and haven't had to use any of it yet. I'll talk more about them and kids in college in another blog post. The beauty of this 509k is that we can transfer to name another child as benefactor if we want any. That is a handy thing since we have a total of 6 children.
Next Time: Juggling Fulll-Time College and Marriage
Seems I am Lax.
Trying to find my feet in this writing field is quite the challenge. I am going through my chick lit, "A Simple Life," since realizing I had switched the 1st person narrative in a couple of spots. I am severely in need of a proper word program, as my word starter just doesn't serve me adequately. I simply can not afford it right now. I am in the final stretch with that book though and hope by the end of September to load it into my Creat Space Account to see if I can sell it. My biggest project is the non-fiction, "Holiness in Ethics." How can I work on things 2 worlds apart? It actually helps keep me sane. holiness is such a deep, personal topic, writing the non-fiction lets me relax and keep perspective.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Introductions
If you ever have one of those dinasaur moments, you'll understand my experiences with blogging this past 1 1/2. I think my previous blog: kathryn'screativewritingblog@blogger.com got lost in cyperspace. One night I posted my weeks worth of devotions, the next, it wouldn't work, wouldn'tlet me in, whatever. It doesn't exist anymore so far as I know.
Now that I have that out of the way, about me. My pen name is kathryn stoll. I use that with writing outside my ministry as an officer/pastor in the Salvation Army. As an officer, I have written for our Territorial publication, The Central News, the national publication, The War Cry, and the international publication, The Officer. I have also written devotionals, and childrens emblem work. I have a devotion published in my Alma Mater, Indiana Wesleyan's devotional book. A poem was published in an anthology during my college days. A fictional work I am working on is called, "The Simple Life." Jeanette has always dreamed of leaving Chicago with her husband and son moving to a hobby farm in the country. Her son's school suspension, and husband's a heart-attack provide the the catlysist she needs to possibly make dream, reality in this dramatic, yet fun adventure. I plan on publishing it through amazon e-book. I'll keep updates on how I'm progressing. Right now, we're to the point where they are looking for properties.
My husband, Mike and I have been married for 26 years this August. We have six children, 22, 21, 19, 14, 11, and 7. The three oldest are in college. I continue homeschooling the other three. One child is in heaven. We have a 13 acre hobby farm we are rehabing as it was a repo. This year I will actually have a vegtable garden. We are wonderfully blessed with with a productive orchard of apples, peaches, cherries, a pear, a nectarine, and plums. We have been trimming and minimumly spraying to have production. The pear and peaches gave a lot last year, as did one of the cherry trees. We'll see what happens with the others. We have a 5-bedroom home on it, a detached garage, and a wonderful barn for the chickens, goats, turkeys, ducks, pigs and geese I hope to have someday. We are blessed to have our current appointment close enough to keep up with the mowing, weeding, and rehabing the house. This summer we hope to have the ceiling in the kitchen and 2 upstairs bedrooms fixed. The previous owners had taken out skylights and reroofed, but didn't fix the ceilings inside. My daughters room had leaking at one point, and all the ceiling drywall looks as if it will fall down. Her floor is a mess too, but it can wait as we have the finances. This fall, it is Joey's (11) room that gets the complete make-over.
Well that's my city girl to the country girl for you. We are slowly realizing it. I was raised as a girl on a farm for the most part and except for our (seminary) training in Chicago, most of the "cities' I have lived in have been the 50,000 or less variety.
There is the long and short of who I am. See you again soon.
Now that I have that out of the way, about me. My pen name is kathryn stoll. I use that with writing outside my ministry as an officer/pastor in the Salvation Army. As an officer, I have written for our Territorial publication, The Central News, the national publication, The War Cry, and the international publication, The Officer. I have also written devotionals, and childrens emblem work. I have a devotion published in my Alma Mater, Indiana Wesleyan's devotional book. A poem was published in an anthology during my college days. A fictional work I am working on is called, "The Simple Life." Jeanette has always dreamed of leaving Chicago with her husband and son moving to a hobby farm in the country. Her son's school suspension, and husband's a heart-attack provide the the catlysist she needs to possibly make dream, reality in this dramatic, yet fun adventure. I plan on publishing it through amazon e-book. I'll keep updates on how I'm progressing. Right now, we're to the point where they are looking for properties.
My husband, Mike and I have been married for 26 years this August. We have six children, 22, 21, 19, 14, 11, and 7. The three oldest are in college. I continue homeschooling the other three. One child is in heaven. We have a 13 acre hobby farm we are rehabing as it was a repo. This year I will actually have a vegtable garden. We are wonderfully blessed with with a productive orchard of apples, peaches, cherries, a pear, a nectarine, and plums. We have been trimming and minimumly spraying to have production. The pear and peaches gave a lot last year, as did one of the cherry trees. We'll see what happens with the others. We have a 5-bedroom home on it, a detached garage, and a wonderful barn for the chickens, goats, turkeys, ducks, pigs and geese I hope to have someday. We are blessed to have our current appointment close enough to keep up with the mowing, weeding, and rehabing the house. This summer we hope to have the ceiling in the kitchen and 2 upstairs bedrooms fixed. The previous owners had taken out skylights and reroofed, but didn't fix the ceilings inside. My daughters room had leaking at one point, and all the ceiling drywall looks as if it will fall down. Her floor is a mess too, but it can wait as we have the finances. This fall, it is Joey's (11) room that gets the complete make-over.
Well that's my city girl to the country girl for you. We are slowly realizing it. I was raised as a girl on a farm for the most part and except for our (seminary) training in Chicago, most of the "cities' I have lived in have been the 50,000 or less variety.
There is the long and short of who I am. See you again soon.
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