Bye Bye Credit Card Debit

 

 I was 18 years old when I got my first credit card. Tom asked me what was the first item you bought on your card? I remembered I went to South Carolina to see some friends, we headed to the mall one day and I saw these awesome sneakers, and before I knew it I was walking out the door with a pair of $70 shoes that I wore like 5 times. Then I discovered all my favorite stores had credit cards available, they all accepted me. In one year I had accumulated 10 credit cards, ridiculous.

 2.5 years ago when Tom and I sat down to put our finances together we added up all my debt, I was almost at $8,500, gut wrenching {Tom, you are a selfless, loving man, thanks for all your support!}I was sick and tired of it. I grew up in church, I knew we are supposed to live in prosperity, why would I do this knowing that? These are all questions that went through my head during that time. It's so easy to be conformed to the ways of the world {Romans 12:2}, but I knew I couldn't beat myself up for this. I knew that I needed to become a diligent worker {Proverbs 10:4} and take care of this {My sweet dad, oh he is such a blessing, I never had asked him to help, but he is a selfless man, and definitely helped me out, thanks daddy!} and God would help us, guide us, and bless us along the way, and he did!

A couple months ago I was now down to 2 cards, Tom & I set a goal {I love goals} to have that stinkin card paid by July 4th. After a few discussions, I knew what I needed to do to make this happen, get a second job. I wasn't going to be picky, so I landed a job with Starbucks. Before I knew it was June and that credit card was paid off a month early, totally awesome! Next was getting the biggest card paid off, I set a goal date for September. We hadn't planned on going to his home state for vacation this Summer because we didn't feel it was right to be spending money on traveling when it could be used towards the debt. I was like ''no, I am not going to let this dumb credit card stop me from enjoying my Summer with family''. Tom said ''get that card paid off and we can go''! That right there was my motivator, so I set a new date for August. There have been so many obstacles the past month, but I told the devil to get under my feet, because I am going! Here I am on July 28th @ 11:30pm laughing at the devil because I defeated that scumbag once again, and we are going on vacation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Holiday Budgeting

 Christmas is only 5.5 months away, it's time to start saving up shopping money NOW! Talk to your spouse to find out how much you want to spend on each other and your families this year, then start taking ''X'' amount of dollars you need out of each paycheck to have the money by the time you go shopping!

Cellular Savings

Last year we sold our 3gs Iphones and got the Iphone 4 off Craigslist the same time the 4s came out (virtually we got a FREE upgrade!!!) . By buying your phones outright you have the freedom of leaving a cell phone company whenever you want. We had a 27% discount at AT&T with Tom's work + monthly credits as they were trying to keep us as clients. Side Note: If you are locked into a 2 year contract you have no negotiation  room for credits and  you have to pay  a fee to get out of your contract!

My husbands fb status a month ago: We just switched cellular carriers. ATT was $145/month for two lines. Switching to STRAIGHT TALK we pay $90 and have unlimited, talk, text and 3G data  Super easy to set up and your iPhone doesn't even need to be unlocked. We are going to save $600 this year! (Fyi: If you have a T-Mobile or AT&T phone you have a GSM phone. All other carriers are CDMA)

At first I was very skeptical about this because it wasn't a ''name brand'' service. But now after a a little over a month of using their services I am pleased to say, this service is wonderful. I love the fact that I don't have to call customer service and complain about the ''surprise'' charges At&t always seemed to put on our account each month. At the end of the month we go to online and buy our pre-paid cards and BOOM... you're done, no hassles, so simple, and great service!

Straight Talk not only works for AT&T customers, but for any other carriers. You can also buy their CDMA cell phones in your local Wal-Mart Stores. 

Pro's:
*Pre-paid, can't go over and get crazy bills at the end of the month.
*NO CONTRACT!!!!!!!!!!!!
*SAVE MONEY!!!!!!!!!!!! Extra vacation anyone?
*Same coverage as AT&T

Con's: 
*It says unlimited data, but if you read fine print you will see that it says ''no download streaming of video/audio content''. (Rumor has it if you stay around 2gb of data you are fine, if over it could throttle your usage.)Which if you are like any other american you probably have wi-fi everywhere you go so it is never an issue of going over!!
*MMS: Our experience was that it worked fine Iphone to Iphone, but sending and receiving from non Iphones didn't work. Thank goodness my genius husband found the fix to get pictures from EVERYONE (Steps below)!!!!!!!!!



Here is how to get your picture messaging:

1. Start your iPhone with your Straight Talk SIM. (If you previously installed the cellular data APN Profile then you will need to remove it before continuing.)
2. Open an app (such as notepad).
3. Go into your Settings -> General -> Network menu. Make sure you have Cellular Data turned on.
4. While still in the Network menu eject your Straight Talk SIM card and replace it with your extra SIM card.
5. You will see a new Cellular Data Settings menu appear. Select it.
6. Once the new menu opens swap your Straight Talk SIM card back into the iPhone.
7. Double-click the home button and switch to the app you started earlier. Wait a few seconds, and then switch back to the Settings application. You should see the data fields update with information.
8. Enter the correct settings for Straight Talk into the appropriate fields:
   Cellular Data
   APN: att.mvno
   Username: <blank>
   Password: <blank>
   
   MMS
   APN: att.mvno
   Username: <blank>
   Password: <blank>
   MMSC: http://mmsc.cingular.com
   MMS Proxy: 66.209.11.33:80
   MMS Message Size: 1048576
   MMS UA Prof URL: <blank>
9. Once you have entered the settings just exit the menu back to the Network menu. You will notice that the Cellular Data Settings menu has now disappeared.
10. At this point your iPhone should be working with Straight Talk data and MMS services. To be sure you should toggle Airplane Mode on and then off to resync the signal. Test out your data and MMS (make sure that you have WiFi turned off so you know that you are actually using the Straight Talk data services).
11. Reboot your iPhone and make sure everything still works once it turns back on. If so you're good to go!

(Steps from www.duglin.net)

 Straight Talk porting phone number

newlyweds on a mission

It seems like we constantly get asked ''how do you guys budget’ or ‘’what did you both do to get out of debt so fast’’? 

About 9 months before Tom & I said ‘’I Do’’ we made the choice to put our finances together. At first it wasn’t really an easy process for me (Kim) because my debts were now our debts. Marrying into debt is a huge responsibility to take on. Luckily with wisdom and the Holy Spirit guiding us we have been able to achieve getting $6,000 out of debt in a year ½. I (Kim) have one more CC to pay off, with a goal date of Sept 1^st, and we will be DEBT FREE!!!!! 

As I was researching for our upcoming E-book, I came across these shocking statistics: The average of credit card holders in the US is at 46%, which averages to a gut wrenching $798 billion dollars. About 43% of those Americans are spending more than double of what they make yearly in credit card debt. Not only that, out of 21,051 newlyweds surveyed, 66% of them married with $5,000 or more in debt. Debt is one of the top 5 stumbling blocks in marriage. 

Tom & I have it on our hearts to share our experiences with other how we were able to get out of debt so quickly and now on the road to living a healthy financial lifestyle. We hope that our stories inspire our readers to live a prosperous lifestyle as well! 

Keep checking back for more stories, tips, and hopefully a few posts by my handsome husband, Tom. 

-Kim 

July Survey

Last month I posted a survey ''Do you budget monthly''? Unfortunately there was a glitch of some sort with the survey and I wasn't  able to review the results accurately. If you have been married 5 or less years, please take the survey located on the top right side of the page!!

Thanks,
Kim

Hello

Welcome to our new blog! It is obvious what our blog is about, we are very excited about sharing our journey with everyone about budgeting and living a healthy financial lifestyle.  Stay tuned for new updates, we are working hard right now on writing a E-book, crossing our fingers it will be published by Black Friday!
~Kim