Great financial news

On May 31st, 7 days ago I finished paying off my father in law's funeral and our state tax bill. It took a few months of pounding out a lot of overtime. But it's finally paid off. I'm exhausted​ and ready to catch up on rest, but we're caught up with our finances.
I know I posted this a couple weeks ago. But here it is again. From 2007-2015 I worked 42,120 hours. That's 4,680 hours a year. An average person that works 40 hours a week works 2,080 hours a year. I averaged more than double that. Being put in a position that I was forced to work overtime for so long caused a lot of problems including but not limited to severe depression. I'd never struggled with depression before that. I'm really sick of overtime. I'm hoping this is the end of me having to hammer out overtime. It's doubtful. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

dinning out on a budget

My wife and I are on a strict budget. We put aside $50 every pay day for dining out.  $50 every two weeks isn't much for a family of 5. We'll usually eat out once a week at someplace cheap like McDonald's or Taco Bell. On Sunday the wife, kids, and I helped an old friend of ours move. We helped move from early morning until 6 pm that night. Afterwards everyone was exhausted and no one felt like cooking so our buddies took us to eat at Applebees. Its amazing how much we enjoyed eating out at an actual restaurant. Back before we had kids and students loans we ate out all the time without thinking about it. It never really felt like that big of a deal. But now going to eat made us fell like royalty. Its amazing how going without something can make us feel so much more grateful and appreciative when we do get it.

medical bills and student loans

I worked 80-90 hours a week for 9 years. It was horrible. I was miserable. Just a few weeks ago ago i was finally able to pay off enough of my wife's student loans that i could afford to start working a bit less & staying home more. And then on Friday i received these. $6,709 in medical bills. I'm so sick and tired of working so much and sleeping so little. Starting tonight i'm going back to working 80-90 hours a week until i pay these off.  I just want to be home to spend time  with my family. I'm so sick of this.

weightlifting goals and programming

Coach Miller started me on a new training program today. He always places the weights he thinks I'll hit at the bottom of the programs he builds. After he handed the new workout plan to me i dashed to a quiet place in the gym and greedily looked at what the numbers he thinks I'll accomplish. Snatch 92k, clean and jerk 116k, a total of 208k! If i am able to do what my weightlifting coach thinks i can do i will qualify for the 2016 USA masters weightlifting national championships!!!!! My biggest goal when i started weightlifting 19 months ago was to qualify for the masters weightlifting national championships. I thought it would take me many years to get to the national championships. Turns out i may reach that goal sooner than i thought.

After working 80-90 hour work weeks since 2006 I've finally got my families finances to the point where i can slow down a bit on overtime. Barring a vehicle breakdown or some other financial calamity i should only have to work 50-60 hour work weeks from here on out.  Perfect timing with me being so close to qualifying for the national championships. I'll be training extra hard and will need the extra time for rest and recovery. 

weightlifting, massage and illness

My wife's family bought my wife a couples message for her birthday. She and i had a the massage on Monday. I thought that was perfect timing because I have a weightlifting meet this Sunday. I figured the massage would help me recover and taper. Instead of helping me,  3-4 hours after the massage i became sick. It was the exact same thing that happened last time i got a massage. Same symptoms and time frame. I'm trying to figure out if it's the massage that's making me sick or if I'm over training. The next time I get a massage I'm not going to get it during my taper. I don't know, can a massage cause a person to get sick?

The  week before last my wife and i did our budget,  but we neglected to factor in that our kids are home for summer break so we'd be going through a lot more food. By Thursday the following week we were out of food. That day was my last heavy day to determine what weights I'd be attempting at the New Mexico games weightlifting meet. Even though i hadn't eaten i still lifted a 85/105. After every lift I'd see spots and get light headed. Apparently eating  before lifting is important. Who knew? Haha.

Olympic weight lifting and CrossFit

My wife has been a full time student since 2007, and we have 3 kids. The 5 of us has been living off my income since then. I've been working a ton the last 6 years. Usually 70-90 hours a week. Recently overtime at the prison I work at has slowed down. It's been a blessing in disguise. Although its been difficult for the 5 of us to adjust our lifestyles enough to live off of my base pay, I'm glad this has happened because I'm burned out working so many hours. I want to be home more.

One of the things I've had to do to live on less money was cancel my CrossFit membership. That sucks because I've really fallen in love with CrossFit and the people I work out with.

I was training for my first olympic weight lifting at my CrossFit gym, so unfortunately I won't be competing in the September and November olympic weight lifting competition. Now that I've had to stop CrossFit and Olympic weight lifting I'm going to start training for triathlons again.

becoming debt free with Dave Ramsey's The Total Money Makeover

In late 2011 my wife and I decided to try to become debt free.We attended The Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University to learn how. So far we've completed step one of The Total Money Makeover which is saving $1000 for emergencies and step two which is paying off all debt using Dave Ramseys debt snow ball. I'm very proud of my wife and I, we've accomplished so much. Who in America these days can say they have no debt? My wife and I now can. The most important thing we've learned in the process of paying off all our debt is that ppersonal finance is 80% BEHAVIOR and only 20% HEAD KNOWLEDGE. Most people live outside of their means. They use credit cards and get loans to get things they don't need with money they don't have. They buy more than they can afford and justify it by saying to themselves we deserve this, we work so hard, or the kids shouldn't go without should they? But what they should be saying is "do we deserve to be broke and should we be teaching our children to be broke and live irresponsibly too? We know, because we lived like that most of our lives.

We are now approximately 4 weeks away from completing step three which is saving 3 months of expenses in case I lost my job or became temporarily disabled. Dave Ramsey said on average it takes most families 24-36 months to complete steps 1-3. If all goes as planned by August my wife and I will have completed steps 1-3 in 8 months. It's been hard, much harder than I thought it was going to be. I've been working 72-84 hours a week every week since December of last year. I've had to miss kids soccer games, family activities, friends get-to-gethers, UFC parties, workouts, triathlons, bike races, etc. Pretty much all I've done is work and sleep. I'm beyond tired. Since I started working this many hours I've struggled with weight gain, being too tired to work out, getting sick frequently and taking a long time to get better. Worst of all is that I miss my wife and kids desperately. But it's been worth it. After 8 months of sacrifice and prayer we are so close! I can't wait to be able to wake up every morning knowing we owe no one any money and we are finally living the way God wants us to. The bible says these things about debt:

The borrower is slave to the lender. When you are in debt to another, you enter into a slave/master relationship with your creditor. (Proverbs 22:7)

We are required to pay back what we borrowed. It is easy to take this lightly, but if we borrowed it, we should pay it back. (Psalm 37:21, Ecclesiastes 5:4).

There are no instances in the Bible where God provides through a loan. He provided for His people in many ways but loans were not one of them. That is something to think about next time you get tempted to reach for the credit card. 

If anyone else is interested in becoming debt free I'd highly suggest attending The Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University. It's nine 90 minutes classes over a 9 week time and it costs less than $120. I promise you, it'll change your lives and your children's lives. It'll change your legacy.

lessons on money and life

In September 2011 my wife and I realized God wanted us to get our finances in order. He told us He wanted us to live the way it says in the bible: without debt. Since December we've paid off $24,000 in debt. Yesterday we started step 3 of Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover. We are very glad to have gotten this far. We now need $10,300 to complete 3.

Since December I've worked no less than 84 hour work weeks. There were times I was so tired from all the overtime and lack of sleep that I felt like a zombie. The only thing that kept me going was the amazing love and support of my God, my wife, and constant prayer. When I'd get into a slump, when I felt I couldn't stay awake another moment I'd take a few minutes to ask for strength and endurance, and to thank God for all He'd done to help me get that far. My wife and my God have carried me through the rough times. And now we're closer than I've ever dreamed we'd be to financial peace!

When God wants me to learn a lesson, He puts me into a situation where I am forced to learn. I don't always like the lesson and I don't always like being taught. I realize God is trying to get through to me. I've been trying to figure out the lesson He's trying to teach me because I'd prefer the lesson to not get any more severe. I've been struggling with my eating disorder a lot recently. A couple weeks ago I fell off the wagon and lost 460 days of abstaining from destructive binge eating. In four and a half days of binge eating my weight shot up from 175 to 202 pounds. This is a common and dangerous problem of mine when I binge eat. A persons kidneys controls their salt and hydration as well as function as a filter. I was eating so much I was overwhelming my kidneys. It wasn't until yesterday that I realized what I've been doing wrong. I became so focused on working and paying off our debt that I gave myself permission to stop going to over eater anonymous meetings, I stopped working the 12 steps, and I stopped calling my sponsor. I'm a addict. I'll always be an addict. On page 33 of the big book it says:

"Most of us have believed if we remained abstinent for a long stretch, we could there after eat normally....once a compulsive over eater always a compulsive over eater. If we are planning to stop destructive eating, there must be no lurking notion that someday we will be immune to food."

I've learned on multiple occasions that when I don't think my compulsive binge eating is a problem, it comes back with a vengeance. I have to realize I'll never be a normal eater. I have to continue working the program & keeping in mind that I am & always will be an addict. I need to take steps daily to keep my addiction in check. I have to follow a food plan, avoid sugar, NEVER eat at buffets, and most importantly I need to walk with God or I will relapse!

Today I've realized I need to continue to work hard on finishing the plan we have addopted from The Total Money Makeover, but I also need to continue staying healthy and working on my problems with food. Today I'm calling my sponsor. I'm going to ask if he's willing to sponsor me again. I'm going to start working the 12 steps again.

This week is the 1st time I've written openly about my eating disorder on my blog. I'm still a little apprehensive and embarrassed to write about my struggles with food and binge eating, but I'm tired of hiding who I am. I'm tired of fighting this addiction alone. "It doesn't take a real man to fight. It takes a real man to reach out his hand."

I'm hoping that others who are struggling with addictions can find some strength and knowledge from my blog by reading about my progress and recovery. Who knows, I might even find some encouragement and support of my own along the way.

No more overtime :(

I've been in corrections almost 14 years now. It has it's good and bad points, but it's always been recession proof. As a matter of a fact when the economy is bad crime goes up & corrections usually sees a boost. Recently the New Mexico state government has demanded corrections cut back on it's spending dramatically. One of the ways the DOC (department of corrections) is cutting spending is by cutting out overtime.

New Mexico DOC has always been one of the 2 or 3 lowest paid corrections in the nation. But because there has always been unlimited overtime our correctional officers hadn't been to terribly upset by this. If we wanted extra money we'd work a few extra shifts on our days off & TADA! A great big check.

With unlimited overtime available to me I've been able to make enough money that my wife is a stay at home Mom with baby #3 on the way. Life was always easy at the DOC, until a month ago.

To put the loss of overtime in perspective we are now living off of 38 percent of what we had been.

Some things we are now doing to live off less money has been to:

-cancel our Net Flix, dish TV, & all magazine subscriptions.

-We are no longer eating out except for special occasions at which time we'll eat at somewhere cheap like Taco Bell or McDonalds.

-I had originally planned on doing around 15 South West Challenge series Multisport races & the Redman Half Iron. Now I will only be doing the few triathlons which I've already paid for. The only reason I'm still able to do the Redman Half Iron is because my best friend will be doing it also & he said he'll pay for the lodging & gas. Thank the Lord for him!

-The races I still plan on doing that are out of town I'll be staying at KOA's & in a tent. To be honest I'm actually excited about this. I've always loved camping out. Now I can camp out & race all in the same weekend!

-We are becoming a 1 vehicle family. We selling our 2007 Ford Fusion. Unfortunately we are about $5,000 upside down, but it's cheaper to pay $160 a month on a $5,000 personal loan than $360 a month on a $23,000 car. Plus we'll be saving $80 a month on insurance. Anyone want to buy an 07 Ford Fusion with 32,000 miles, near mint condition, one owner vehicle? Retail is $15,000. Private Party is $12,100. We'll sell for $10,500. That's $4,500 below what you can buy it for at a dealership!

-I've planted a large vegetable garden so I can ensure my family will still have healthy veggies.

-I'm commuting to work on my bicycle.

-There's a bunch of other little ways we're going to try & save money such as buying food in bulk, buying our clothes & other necessities when possible at Good Will, etc.

Thankfully running & cycling is free;)

All in all I believe God will see us through this unexpected rough time. If you have an opportunity I'd sure appreciate prayers.

Peace Peeps! I'm out!