I'm really starting to think my Dh is starting to get on board with what I've been saying to him about saving more.

I went up to him yesterday and told him I messed around with his pay.

To which I got the naturally suspicious look.

"Don't worry, I just increased your TSP contribution to 10%"

And to which, I get this response "Part of me thinks I should just have a Roth and not even bother with the TSP."

Keep in mind, this is the same guy - that back in 2005 when I initially learned about a Roth IRA - he said he didn't understand why he needed one when he has a pension and the TSP. He still kept saying this as of last year as well, but I suppose the years of spending our Saturday nights watching Suze Orman has worn off on him (even though he SAYS she is really boring, he'll watch the show with me just because he knows I like her and I only have a handful of shows I do like).

So we went ahead and opened up a Roth IRA for him (after a discussion about why he should still take advantage of the TSP).

I don't think he realizes how lucky he is. I don't have a government job or a pension to fall back on, my employer doesn't offer ANY type of retirement savings plan... all I have is my Roth IRA.

But its starting to sound like he's getting on board with this whole saving more/spending less plan. Makes life a lot easier.

In my life, being mixed (I'm part Hawaiian/Chinese and the other half is white)... I always found myself doing something odd. When I lived on the mainland, I'd dye my hair - try to fit in and make it blond.

When I lived in Hawaii, I embraced my dark hair.

In 2006, I was spending $200 every 2 months or so heavily highlighting my hair.

My husband didn't understand this about me, he met me in Hawaii and loved me as I was. And he also didn't like spending $200 every other month to keep up this habit.

So I stopped, and let my hair grow. I'm excited that now ALL the highlights have now been cut out of my hair. And what's best, I find myself finally accepting what is me even though I'm surrounded by blond hair blue eyed people. Not to mention, my hair is sooo much healthier too. I think thats what I enjoy the most, my hair has not been this shiny or smooth since I was a child. I love it.

I wish I had come to just accept who I am a lot sooner. Certainly wasn't worth all this stupid money I spent on highlighting my hair to be something I am not & never will be.

Its best to just be who you are... and its a lot cheaper too. Thats the thing I am realizing with money too. When you live beyond your means, you end up wasting more money to be something you're not because if you can't afford it, you're trying to be something you just are not.

It took me 2 hours to get my hair highlighted... but 2 years to get my natural color COMPLETELY back. I didn't dye it while I let it grow out either, so for awhile my hair was two-tone. But I just kept going back and getting the ends cut off and eventually the blonde was cut away.

But again, another analogy I can relate to debt.

So even though it only took me a year or two to get in so much debt, I know it will take much longer to pay off - but in the end, it will be sooo worth it.

Although I am pretty pleased that just simply "going back to my roots" saved me an automatic $1200/yr.

And I must say... I don't know why I ever started highlighting it in the first place. DH likes me better with my dark hair. And even if people like me better blond... its not worth what I was spending for the upkeep. I'm sure nature has it right all along anyhow.

BEFORE


After

I sat down and realized today that maxing out one's IRA contribution is extremely important, even if you are trying to pay off debt.

Reason being, I could pay off our credit card this year. But I also realized, that because I can only contribute $5K a year to my IRAs, I miss out on a valuable opportunity to save this year.

So I need to acknowledge the strides I've taken this year to pay down our debt. At the beginning of the year we owed $14K on our credit card and have now paid it down to $9500 within the first six months.

I also hope that in starting to save, when our debt is paid off - we'll be used to saving so continuing to do so will just be natural.

I'm thinking of also increasing DH's TSP contribution to 10% of his pay (its currently at 5%). So that would increase our monthly savings amount to $1150/month from the $645/mo between EF and Retirement accounts.

I got a NL today from Military.com talking about 2009's raise. Another good thing. DH made board for Chief so hopefully he gets selected in August. He's got a lot of good things on his side.

Really though, I just am mostly thankful for the healthcare aspect. When my son was born, he had to go by ambulance to CHKD and stayed there for 2 weeks. I never had to pay 1 penny for that $20K stay. As a senior in college with two other little ones and DH as the only one working earning less than $30K a year... I was VERY grateful.

My son has another appointment coming up. Him and my youngest seem to have DH's genes and have allergies or something going on.

Needless to say I'm very thankful that we don't ever have to worry about health insurance, premiums, or copays. Rxs are even free if we go to the military pharmacy, haven't tried a civilian one but I think if we did we only had to pay $3 or $9

The raises on DH's part come at a very helpful time because I don't foresee myself getting any substantial raises anytime soon. I have a performance review soon & I'm definitely not a bad employee but I'm also not counting on it either.

Commissary privileges have also been very helpful. I definitely notice the difference in the price of milk. I started a spreadsheet with the items we buy and their price, the only price increases I've seen were a 6-7% increase on milk and vegetables. Not more than that.

Well, and of course the TDY stuff I mentioned yesterday.

DH and I did make some progress today though. We decided to sell the rental next year cause it is just too much of a headache and as someone else said, a financial disaster.

I have a plan in place that if we do that and even just get $250K for our rental, we'll be 100% out of debt by January 2012. So in a little less than 4 years. No CC debt, no car debt, no student loan debt - just the mortgage on this house.

Which if we have to move in 2010 or 2011 I'm not sure what we will do with this house. Even if we left here there is a good chance we'd have to come back and we can always come back and live here. Again, I love this house, the neighborhood, everything about this place.

Our rental, I despise... its an okay neighborhood so it is holding its value... but I don't believe in it as much as I do our house.

My DH told me today that after he is reimbursed for his travel expenses to South Carolina this past week, we'll get $579!!! I was only counting on $200.

I asked him what he wanted to do with it - savings or CC debt... and I think I pleasantly surprised him cause he said "Don't we have to pay the Navy back for the class I failed?"

"No, don't worry about that, if you REALLY looked at the budget I showed you this month you'd have seen I already have that covered."

After this he has a trip to San Antonio in June and a trip in August to South America. Hopefully if he stays frugal on the trips like he's been doing, we'll make more money off of them. Right now I'm estimating $500 for San Antonio and $1000 for South America.

We're not sure what to do with the $579 though. I figured we could put it savings for our trip in September, but our savings account only earns .76% interest and our CC is at 3.65%

BUT we want to make sure we have the $1500 saved in cash for the trip so when we go - we stay away from CC. On the flip side, Dh has said "I'm afraid if we know its there, it'd be too easy to spend it."

We have another bank account I told him we could put it in... completely separate from our usual bank. So when I log on, we won't see the money and hence takes out the temptation.

As you can see, we're working on the self-control department.

I really am likening this whole experience to losing weight. Its like how fad diets or crash diets don't work. Which is probably why although DH got $18K back in 2005, we were debt free for a little while but within a year started racking it back up. In order to STAY out of debt we probably have to do it the right way... slow steps... so it changes our behavior and becomes a lifestyle change.

I have a hard time with my weight still. We can't carry sweets or soda in the house cause that will be all I eat. Since I'm still trying to lose the baby weight (9 lbs left to go)... I've really buckled down on that. WE just don't carry sweets or snacks in the house cause I know my self-control in that department sucks. But I'm not obese... far from it really. I'm on the taller side of average and am now comfortably fitting into my 6s... and can start squeezing into my pre-pregnancy size 4s.

So anyhow... I'm excited about the $579... not bad for a 5 day trip! Just now not sure what to do with it... and we want to do the right thing. But wow, if he keeps taking business trips maybe we will be out of CC debt this year after all!!!!