There are always curve balls in life, aren't there? When I was 20 years old, I figured that by the time I was 40, I would have everything figured out. Life would be perfect. My children would be perfect (okay, they're pretty darn close in my eyes), my marriage would be perfect (obviously this isn't the case, but we keep working at it), and our financial situation would be perfect.
Finances. I remember people saying that the more money you have, the more you spend. As a young mother, living on John's medical school loans, I couldn't imagine this could possibly be the case. However, let me tell all of you young-ins, it's true. Here are some of the problems that come with age, and with having more money:
1. Taxes. Taxes are killing us. We estimate that between 30 to 40 percent of our income goes to taxes. This includes income taxes (federal, state, and local) and property taxes. Unfortunately, these bills come due within months of each other, and it blows our check book out of the water.
2. College tuition and living expenses. We have been paying college tuition for three of the past four years. Whether it's BYU or Michigan, it's a chunk of change out of our wallets.
3. Car payments. I remember when one car was enough for us. When I could just drive John to work if I really needed the car that day. Now, with John working 40 minutes away, and with a life that includes kids and their activities, that's not possible. We have a "Kennedy Kid Kar", one that we bought with Ethan, the same one that Mark took to Michigan, and the one that Johannah now drives. We pay off the cars pretty quickly, but gas for the three of them? At $3.65/gallon? And insurance for young drivers?
4. Missionaries. We love missionaries, but we have been making monthly payments to the church for our boys for the last three years. We didn't even get a break when Ethan came home!
5. Kids. Man, kids are a lot of money. John says that he didn't believe people when they told him that--he asked himself, "How expensive can they be? They just need diapers." Senior pictures, festivals, clothes, doctors' appointments, music lessons, braces. It all adds up.
6. A mortgage. John and I are paying out the door for our privacy...and for great schools. It's amazing to me that if we drive just 20 minutes to the west (and out of our school district), property values decrease by at least 30%.
Anyway, it's all kind of hit us hard recently and I've been left feeling like things are spinning out of control. I knew I would feel better if I was controlling something.
I got to thinking about our food. Our grocery bill isn't astronomical, because quite honestly, I don't buy a lot of processed, or packaged foods. But we have a freezer in the garage along with the refrigerator that Mark had in college, and they are filled with food.
I hatched a plan. Over the next few weeks (until we leave for Interlochen), we would eat all of the food that we have. I will still buy milk and fresh fruit and other things for lunch, but we are going to clean our house out of food. The random noodles and cake mixes in the pantry? We'll eat them. The Lean Cuisine entrees left over from diet studies? They will be dinner some nights. The new bread machine John bought me for Mother's Day? I'm making loaves of white bread every day, and we LOVE it.
Too, drug reps bring in food all the time to John's work. Usually, the food just gets thrown out, but not anymore! The other night, John brought home Chili's! Eating out...for FREE!!
Believe me, I never set aside any of this food for "food storage" per se, but it's ended up being it. And we're going to eat it to at least save a few pennies on our grocery bill. In all honesty, it won't save us any significant amount of money, but at least I'll feel in control of something. I can't control taxes, or my kids growing up (and the money that we spend in that process), but gosh darn it, I can control what we eat! And that's a good thing.
Finances. I remember people saying that the more money you have, the more you spend. As a young mother, living on John's medical school loans, I couldn't imagine this could possibly be the case. However, let me tell all of you young-ins, it's true. Here are some of the problems that come with age, and with having more money:1. Taxes. Taxes are killing us. We estimate that between 30 to 40 percent of our income goes to taxes. This includes income taxes (federal, state, and local) and property taxes. Unfortunately, these bills come due within months of each other, and it blows our check book out of the water.
2. College tuition and living expenses. We have been paying college tuition for three of the past four years. Whether it's BYU or Michigan, it's a chunk of change out of our wallets.
3. Car payments. I remember when one car was enough for us. When I could just drive John to work if I really needed the car that day. Now, with John working 40 minutes away, and with a life that includes kids and their activities, that's not possible. We have a "Kennedy Kid Kar", one that we bought with Ethan, the same one that Mark took to Michigan, and the one that Johannah now drives. We pay off the cars pretty quickly, but gas for the three of them? At $3.65/gallon? And insurance for young drivers?
4. Missionaries. We love missionaries, but we have been making monthly payments to the church for our boys for the last three years. We didn't even get a break when Ethan came home!
5. Kids. Man, kids are a lot of money. John says that he didn't believe people when they told him that--he asked himself, "How expensive can they be? They just need diapers." Senior pictures, festivals, clothes, doctors' appointments, music lessons, braces. It all adds up.
6. A mortgage. John and I are paying out the door for our privacy...and for great schools. It's amazing to me that if we drive just 20 minutes to the west (and out of our school district), property values decrease by at least 30%.
Anyway, it's all kind of hit us hard recently and I've been left feeling like things are spinning out of control. I knew I would feel better if I was controlling something.
I got to thinking about our food. Our grocery bill isn't astronomical, because quite honestly, I don't buy a lot of processed, or packaged foods. But we have a freezer in the garage along with the refrigerator that Mark had in college, and they are filled with food.
I hatched a plan. Over the next few weeks (until we leave for Interlochen), we would eat all of the food that we have. I will still buy milk and fresh fruit and other things for lunch, but we are going to clean our house out of food. The random noodles and cake mixes in the pantry? We'll eat them. The Lean Cuisine entrees left over from diet studies? They will be dinner some nights. The new bread machine John bought me for Mother's Day? I'm making loaves of white bread every day, and we LOVE it.
Too, drug reps bring in food all the time to John's work. Usually, the food just gets thrown out, but not anymore! The other night, John brought home Chili's! Eating out...for FREE!!
Believe me, I never set aside any of this food for "food storage" per se, but it's ended up being it. And we're going to eat it to at least save a few pennies on our grocery bill. In all honesty, it won't save us any significant amount of money, but at least I'll feel in control of something. I can't control taxes, or my kids growing up (and the money that we spend in that process), but gosh darn it, I can control what we eat! And that's a good thing.
I try to do the same thing a few times a year - it saves some money and I clear out all the random things that are cluttering up the pantry. And Chili's for FREE - awesome!
ReplyDeleteThat is too funny. I am trying to eat through our outdoor freezer meat stash because I keep buying meat at Costco and Whole Foods and putting it out there...so I won't let myself buy anything new until it is all gone! It forces me to plan and use what we have!
ReplyDeleteI love the food so far. I am really looking forward to the diet food pre packaged of course that has been sitting in the basement. I hope I don't die but I will try it.
ReplyDelete