Croz, sell the 16-year old!! There are plenty of people looking for a spare teenager. You won't get much for him - maybe 6.00 an hour, but it's worth something.

16 is the perfect age to get a little part-time pocket-money job. It gives your teen a sense of responsibility, PLUS puts money in their pocket so they stay out of yours. When I was 16-18, I worked a few nights a week at the popcorn counter of a movie theater. My mother charged me "rent" of 1/3 of my net paycheck. Of course I groused about it, because that was a whole CD that I couldn't buy, but in the long run, it was good for me.

Gnashchick,
Don't get me started on lazy teens. I worked basically since I was 12. He's 16, and he'd rather sit home broke, than get a job. We tried to give him a list of daily household chores to do, in exchange for a paycheck, and he said, "Chores don't really work for me."

Of course, the other day, he did a rare request for money. I said, "Did you spend all of your allowance?"

He said, "I don't get an allowance."

I said, "Oh, that's right. Chores don't really work for you."

That was the end of THAT conversation!

Excellent.

Congrats on your first monthly budget. Keep us posted on how you do.

squished

I've been avoiding my journal.

Just like I tend to avoid my fitness journal when I've been a bad boy health-wise, I've avoided this journal because I've been a bad boy financially.

We had a set back on our road to becoming debt-free.

My wife couldn't take it anymore. I can't blame her! I was having trouble myself.

We bought our house in August of last year, knowing it was a "fixer-upper." We had hoped to have it mostly done by now. But we had a number of financial setbacks along the way that has the house in a serious state of disrepair. Only two rooms were painted. Most of the interior doors needed to be repaired or replaced. Only one shower works. We have no lawn, only sand and weeds. You get the picture. Before we even moved in, we had to rip out all of the sinks, replace them, tear out the carpet, throw out all of the appliances except the dishwasher, etc.

To save money on flooring, we stained the concrete. But that hasn't worked out at all. If you look at it, it chips. Basically, it's an embarrassing hellhole. (only a slight exaggeration) The dishwasher is about dead. The racks are so rusted that you have a good chance to break off tines just by putting glasses in the rack.

When we committed to becoming debt free, we thought we could live with it until we could do it all with cash. But we couldn't. I'm not there 10 hours a day, so it doesn't bother me as much, but my wife is there all day, every day.

So we've taken on some additional credit card debt to get the house livable. New dishwasher, new doors, repaired the furnace, lots of paint, and the biggie will be new flooring in the main living areas. (The bedrooms will stay stained concrete for now.) I'm also putting in a front lawn, but that's more work than it is money.

I have convinced her to let me do all of the work myself, to save on labor. But to keep up my end of the bargain, I have to not let projects slip, or stay unfinished for long, as is my habit! So I've been burning the candle at both ends for the past few weeks.

But I have to admit, the house is looking MUCH better, and MUCH more livable! I've been trying to only charge the big ticket items, and pay for things like paint out of the monthly budget. And we're not going nuts. I was ready to buy a $300 dishwasher, until I did some serious creative digging and found that I could get a $600 dishwasher for only $350 after all of the rebates I could collect. So I'm trying to still be frugal, and keep the debt to a minimum, but right now my debt level is going up, rather than down.

Forgive me Dave Ramsey, for I have sinned...

It's isn't a sin to not completely sacrifice your quality of life. You can't live your life in misery - what's the point of that? It probably would have been better to plan for this instead of just doing it and charging it but it's done so no need to kick yourself, just readjust your plan and keep moving forward.

I compare money to a diet/fitness plan a lot. Just because you fall off the wagon doesn't mean you have to quit. It just means you start again the next day.

Hey Croz, Not that I'm in favor of credit card debt but I do have the following suggestion that worked well for my husband and me (we have lots of house expenses for 4 houses). My husband and I both opened Home Depot credit cards during one of their specials where if you open a credit card and you spend X amount or more (I think its $500 minimum) the purchases are at 0% for 6 mos or for 12 mos depending on the special. We used the 0% specials from home depot multiple times over a number of years and never paid any money in interest. Of course the catch is that you have to have the money to pay off the charges before the 0% expires.