New Credit Cards

We received two new credit cards in the mail today. They were renewal cards for ones that were due to expire this month. I took those two card and put them straight into the shredder! I did not even allow myself to think twice about it. I know myself pretty well.....if I allowed myself to think about it I could have talked myself into putting the cards away in a "safe" place in case of an emergency. That is exactly the thought process that has gotten us into this debt mess. This just proves that I have to get that emergency fund done so we will have it for a "real" emergency.

Hurricane Ike has done one thing for me........It proved that I have to have a emergency fund!!!! I will never be caught in the same situation as I was during Hurricane Ike. I did not have nearly enough emergency money put aside. I have read Dave Ramsey's advice that you need to have $1000.00 in an emergency fund. That is not nearly enough if a real disaster occurs. I know......we lived it. For Example........if you had to leave your home for a disaster, here is what you would be looking at.

Gas to leave $500.00 (these are estimates)
Hotel for 4 nights $400.00 (that is if you can find a cheap one)
Food for 4 days for a family of 4 $320.00 (if you have to eat out every meal) plan for the worst
Grand Total $1220.00

Once you return home you don't know what you are going home to, so I will use our situation as an example. We had some major clean up but no structural damage to the house. We had to buy a generator and 100 foot extension cords. Gas for the generator for 13 days, gas to run the chain saws, ice because we could not drink the water, bottled water, charcoal and lighter fluid because I have electric cook top, sandwich meat and bread, chips, groceries to cook on the BBQ pit caused we lost everything in the freezers. We will have a generator for future use which we should have had already.

All that totaled around $1050.00 dollars. Due to the electricity being off in most places it was very difficult to find gas, so when you found a store that had electricity with fuel you waited in line for 1 to 2 hours. We bought our lunch meat and frozen item at the location we were staying at before we came home. Most of the store were not selling any produce or meats due to everything they had in stock ruined. They had to sanitize the coolers and have them inspected before they were allowed to sell any cold items. That was around two weeks after the storm. My total out of pocket expenses was around $2300.00 which does not include the generator. The generator was $895.00. We were very lucky cause most people had it so much worse than we did. My goal for our emergency fund will be $3000.00.

I think when you are planning how much you need for your emergency fund, it is important to consider what type of disaster are you pron to in your area. Plan your emergency fund amount according to those type situations. It is very scary when you are facing an emergency crisis and you are not financially prepared. I have never be so scared in all my life. My mind kept going back to the thought "What if we go back home and have NOTHING left?" Ask yourself that question and really think about it.....What would you do? Most people would say we will survive. That is very true, you will survive but the stress it causes can be very overwhelming. So, for our future I will try to have a plan in place so that we can relieve ourselves of the undue stress. Those situations are stressful enough without adding financial stress when you don't have to.

CVS.......Saving Big Time!!!

I have been researching how so many people are saving at CVS. So, I decided that I can do this too. I started clipping coupons and watching the weekly CVS circular. Last night I decided to make my first try at the coupon/extra bucks thing. I only bought three items but the savings was awesome. Here is a recount of what I purchased.

1 Shampoo (was on sale)
1 Conditioner (was on sale)
1 Toothpaste

Total Regular Price $11.87
Total Sale Discount $2.22
Total Coupon Discount $3.00
Total Extra Bucks Used $5.00
MY GRAND TOTAL OUT OF POCKET WAS $1.65
Total Savings $10.22

I am a believer now. I will continue to work at saving at CVS but now I have to start working on the grocery store items. I have to admit that I am terible at using coupons at the grocery store. With the prices of everything going up so much and with our large debt I have no choice but to start working to save as much as possible in every area I can.

Please feel free to share the areas you are able to save in your household. I would love to learn from you.

DLD