I love FREE!

I heard a rumor that tomorrow, Monday, April 27, KFC will be giving away free chicken as part of a new promotion for their newly offered grilled chicken. Mmmmmmmmm… free.

All you have to do is ask...

Last week, by poking around a little, doing some research, and then following through, I was able to shave $125 off our monthly bills.

First I tackled our cell phone bill, which is one of the bills I am responsible for paying. We have had the same plan for awhile and it had a lot of "a la carte" options. The bill just seemed too high to me. So I called our provider and explained to them that there were a lot of unused minutes and I thought I was wasting a lot of my money with them. The representative was able to look around and found a better plan for us, where everything is included and took nearly $25 off our monthly bill.

Later that day I was on Wright-Patt Credit Union's website and was looking at the section on the front page labeled "Get Today's Rates" I noticed that the APR for the auto loans was a lot lower than my current APR. So, I contacted Jayme and she informed me that we had been able to get my credit score up high enough that I could apply to refinance my car loan at the much lower rate through WPCU. We were able to knock 3% of my APR and $100 of my monthly payments.

Yay!

All it took was the gumption to get it done.

We Haven't Stopped Living

I have to admit, hearing the percentages from the other families leaves me with mixed feelings. I'm hearing percentages in triple digits, and we don't have that. On the one hand, I'm happy for them! On the other, it's difficult not to get discouraged...are we "losing" the Race?

Well, I've had to look at it from a different perspective this week. We've made so much progress in reducing our debt, and in getting our savings account to grow...in terms of our financial outlook, it's like a brand new day. Our strategy, though, continues beyond the Race...it continues to the horizon. It's been important for Jess and I to make changes that we can sustain indefinitely...it's not enough to reach a finish line, for us, because life won't stop on June 1st. In many ways, that's the day it'll start fresh. We've got a check ready to write to get our home study done...the next step on our race to adoption. That's a sizeable chunk of change, though...and so we're waiting to the end of the Race.

And we will likely close on a new house at that time. An opportunity arose to purchase a home that is an upgrade (for us) from current, and to turn our current house over to a rental. We reviewed the math, and we siezed the opportunity. Carpe Diem. It's a beautiful home, a dream home for us...though not without a bit of work to be done. And it'll be a great place to raise a family. Quite frankly, we just would never have thought of doing this 6 short months ago...we would have "known" that we couldn't afford it. But thanks to the lessons learned in this Race, we know we can, and will likely come out a little ahead thanks to the rental.

In real terms...we've already removed one montly bill (by paying off a credit card completely), and are well on our way to removing another. We have freed up more income to add to the savings, to the further reduction of other debts...we might not get debt free by the time the Race is over...but we know that we will be soon enough...and all the money we've been throwing out the door can then be saved, invested, and no longer wasted.

Of course, the race isn't over yet...and there are likely more lessons yet to learn.

Dave