A Mike Life – The Life of Mike!

The long, long road to clearing space for Lyla

// November 19th, 2008 // family

No, I’m not talking about turning a junk room into a baby’s room just so our forthcoming baby girl will have a place to live once she’s part of the rest of us breathing real air.

Although that was all important and a very long process.

What I am talking about is the financial side of the equation. Ever since we found out we’re pregnant, the idea of being able to make ends meet was the first thing on my mind. It consumed me and became something I couldn’t stop focusing on for a good while.

That was until months later I realized how God was taking care of us and I let it all go. But before that (and somewhat after), we’ve been doing everything we could to cut expense.

And I’m proud of it. And also a little annoyed at myself for not making these changes earlier.

The big issue was Jina after the pregnancy. Would she work? More than likely not, so the idea of losing her salary was daunting. How could we even make it?

Well, I’ve already talked about how God worked his will in my life and my job (which was huge), but I never really talked about how much work we’ve put into cutting down expenses.

And I’m not exactly sure why I want to talk about it, but it’s probably because I have this insane desire to just share whatever I feel like with anyone I feel like.

So when the idea of trying to cut expenses came up, the first thing I thought of was my truck. $468 a month. My dream truck, my Toyota Tacoma. I planned on keeping it for 10+ years, maintaining it, loving it, snuggling with it and most of all, paying it off as soon as I could. I’d already been putting $200+ more a month to try and knock it down.

But it took me all of three days to realize how much I could save if I had NO truck payment at all. And thus I suddenly found myself down at Big Two (where I bought it) looking to see how much I could get if I traded it in for a cheaper vehicle.

So I ended up leaving with a Jeep for $10k and having only lost about $2k on the trade in. Not bad these days, I think I got lucky hitting them before the major crash.

Then God blessed us again as someone offered to buy the sports website I ran with a friend. With that cash, I decided to sell the Jeep for as close as I could to what I paid and then buy a car for around $5k that I could pay off.

And it all worked out…now I’m driving a 1999 Toyota Solara with NO monthly payments. It’s a great car, but nothing like the feeling of no payment.

That was just the tip of the iceberg. Here’s a rundown of what we’ve done this year so far.

• Saved $468 a month on the truck payment
• Saved $300 a year switching to cheaper homeowners insurance
• Saved $120 a month refinancing Jina’s car
• Saved around $30 a month switching from Verizon to Alltel
• Saving $10-20 a month on cutting out the home phone’s long distance and using only our cells
• Saved $11 a month on changing some coverage on car insurance
• I love this one: Saved $1.25 a month cutting out call waiting on the home phone

I think there is more, but I can’t remember it all. But adding it all up, that’s around $650 a month we saved by cutting back on as much as we could get away with.

There are probably other places we can cut back on, but for now, I’m fairly happy with the stuff we’ve done. And like I said above, it’s amazing how much money you can gain back by just analyzing what you are doing and finding better solutions.

The only downside is if you allow yourself to get consumed by it and think nothing other than money for months on end, which I got caught up in.

So all this to say…the baby’s room is done, the bills are cut back, the house is trying to stay clean and mommy is ready for Lyla to get here.

I can’t wait to show her all the stuff we’ve done in anticipation of her arrival. She’s not even here yet, but is already the most important thing in our lives.