Cash pt. 2 God Always Provides!

So remember my post I did a little while back about paying cash for everything?  We've had a big financial week with lots of prayer.  God never ceases to amaze me.  To back track some..........

A few months ago Natalie had a HORRIBLE rash.  First it was on her legs, then her mouth.  Even after prescription cream, the rash didn't go away completely.  We ended up having some very expensive blood work done to test for allergies.  We have a high deductable on insurance and well, that lovely bill came in the mail.  It was high enough we would normally make payments on it, but of course they add the incentive, pay it off by this date and it'll be $30 less.  We wondered how we could pay it off in one big chunk, then Kris pulled out a check he got in the mail from a customer for about $15 more than what Natalie's hospital bill was.  God thing  #1

This past weekend, we went to Arkansas to help some friends build an addition on to their house. We came home and immediately figured out our AC unit was not working.  Air was coming out of the floor vents but it was NOT cold.  A service man came out that night and basically said we needed a new unit (ours is 17 years old) and this thing: (stock photo)

was going to cost $3400.  I went in to panic mode.  We were determined NOT to go in to debt, but do not have $3400.  Monday was awful, I was at work and my face hurt so bad like I had been crying (even though I hadn't).  I was sick to my stomach, felt like the world was crushing in on me.  To make things worse, while in Arkansas, I had baptized my cell phone so I couldn't text Kris or call him the whole day. Our house was 94 degrees inside (windows open and ceiling fans running!) NOT safe for an 18 month old little girl.  I honestly felt hopeless, helpless, and never in my life so depressed.  I prayed and prayed all day.  After two days of Kris calling around for estimates, we had a plan in action.  I don't know WHAT kind of AC unit the first guy was trying to sell us, but we snagged a new unit for $1,700.  Remember, we live in a tin box, so we don't need an all out AC unit made of Gold.  

Remember my CASH post about Dave Ramsey and paying cash for EVERYTHING?  Dave says to keep $1,000 in an emergency fund.  a TRUE emergency fund.  This was a TRUE emergency.  But we were still $700 short.  This is where God does something BIG!  

I had canceled my retirement fund at work because I wanted to save that money for the first year to pay off bills.  I recently found out that my employer had been pulling money out of my paychecks and they were NOT authorized to do that.  After some phone calls and paperwork, my employer owed me $300.  My $300 check came in on MONDAY!  That, plus my almost $100 reimbursement for mileage check, we were only $300 short <--- which we were able to shuffle around and make do.  We'll just live on mac and cheese for who knows how long =)  

I don't want to get all "personal" with our finances.....but even the Bible says not to go in debt, and the borrower is slave to the lender.  I have made SEVERAL poor financial decisions in the past that has led me to a huge amount of debt that I am trying to climb out of.  My parents suggested community college first...and now I know why!!! (I was 18 and knew EVERYTHING!)

God promised that he will provide for our every need and He truly has!  This week has truly been amazing, and we are enjoying a new AC that can actually keep up and doesn't run all day.  God is good!

Now we are just praying for no financial emergencies and our fridge that drips water everywhere holds out a little longer. 

Since I am way behind on posting, just a few other sweet CASH (or free) deals we've gotten:

We now own goats!  3 Pygmies we bought for $100.

On the free section of craigslist there were some yard sale left overs.  We got a kids picnic table, sand box, and slide for Natalie all for FREE! 

I bought Natalie a used kitchen set with tons of food and dishes for $35.  I could probably turn around and sell for $50.   

  

Cash

To my *few* faithful readers, I'm sorry it's been awhile. We have been swamped crazy busy between several picnics on the farm, family functions, family visiting, church, other obligations, etc. etc. I've had several different ideas I wanted to share, but for now, I'll give kuddos out to Dave Ramsey.

We pay cash for everything. Seriously everything. Now we have not been completely faithful to this, but we are trying. After a couple of set backs, we are back on board. We are not debt free (student loans, house, credit card) but we are on our way to being there. We stopped using the credit card a long time ago, and most recently, we bought a new to us Dodge Caravan with CASH.

Kris and I went through Dave's Financial Peace University and loved it. But, I must be transparent and will say we struggle with it. We are horrible at making budgets / sticking to budgets. We are horrible trying to use the "cash envelope" system (we do use cash, cash in the form of a debit card NOT a credit card), but it has changed our way of thinking.

Our latest big purchase, the minivan. I had an Alero that my parents generously gave to me when graduating college. Ever since Natalie was born (17 months ago) we talked about getting something bigger. It still beats me how such a little person takes up so much room. After lots of talk and no do, we sunk some money in to the Alero, got it as mechanically sound as it was going to be, and took the plunge and listed it on Craigslist. During our time taking the FPU classes, we were taught about buying and selling big purchases, cars, houses, etc. We priced the Alero a few hundred above what we would take to allow room for negotiating. Low and behold, we sold it for the asking price. 2 days later, a KILLER deal showed up on a minivan. We snagged it for $700 under KBB and paid $150 less than what we sold the Alero for. THAT is a Dave Ramsey Deal (and a God deal)!

All of that was done through craigslist which brings me to my next point. We LIVE off of craigslist. Seriously. If you want to follow Dave's plan, you'll become best friends with craigslist. Our house is furnished from it (including the house itself). Furniture, piano, baby furniture, baby toys, macbook, appliances, tools, animals, farm equipment, we've bought it all off of there. You can save so much off of buying used, and some of it is new! (and you can make money selling stuff. We bought a $50 love seat and a few years later sold it for $250) You have to know what to look for and what the going price is.

The key is to live within your means. We don't have a large income, but can provide for our family's needs. We don't have nice vehicles, nor expensive clothes, or go on huge vacations. But, our vehicles are paid for, we don't have looming payments, and when we do go on vacation, we have good memories of it, not memories of having to pay it off 1 year after we went on the trip.

I encourage you to read Dave Ramsey's book Total Money Makeover and look into the Financial Peace University.