The Justin & Alaris Sharp Family: March 2009

Well, here we are. Alaris has pretty well owned this blog, as you can likely tell by the neatly matching color scheme and random recipe postings. I thought it was time to offer one man's opinion. I tend to remain quiet unless I'm gathered within my circle, so I'll let this be my outlet to share my thoughts and opinions with the rest of the family and friends who might be interested to read.

I drive about 45 minutes to 1 hour per day, each way, to my employer. Despite the obvious negatives of this driving arrangement, it does give me more than ample daily time to ponder the deep mysteries of the universe, as well as various get-rich-quick-schemes. My thoughts are often on the topic of our political landscape. However, as much as I would love to get into that on my first post

cough we are doomed cough

I will reserve my thoughts on that subject for now and turn to another -- did you read the description of this blog? As you no doubt have observed, my posts might be random and aimless. I think I might have a slight case of undiagnosed A.D.D... Hey, pass me the Adderall please -- anyway I'd like to deviate to the subject of finances and budgeting.

We have been blessed over the past 4 years to become followers of a man named Dave Ramsey. I have always sort of held the views that he teaches, but never really put my families finances into perspective until I had the opportunity to listen to wave after wave of his callers, which are generally in a far worse situation than we are. Learning from other people's mistakes has really helped us avoid some of the common traps of the average American consumer. Through the past few years of guiding my young family as a ruthless penny pincher, and with a lot of luck, we have managed to make it to baby step 6. The "economic downturn" of '08 has been discouraging - especially checking the balances of my Roth IRA's/Roth 401k, which just make me want to cry. I keep putting money in, and yet the balance keeps going down, WHY?!?! - but over all has not been a "life altering event" for us. We had already altered our lifestyle in advance.

Now, while a lot of the country is scrambling to offload their consumer debt, or to offload assets in order to come up with cash after a layoff, we are able to take advantage of the "steals" that are currently on the market. For example: A life long dream of mine, ever since my early pre-teenager days of riding my grandfather's snowmobiles at his cabin,
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has been to own a pair of sleds myself. I am happy to report that we can check that one off the list, as I was recently able to acquire 2 sleds at a

unbelievable prices.
(a '99 Polaris RMK 700 136")

(a '05 Arctic Cat M7 162").

To those who know me, this may seem like a sudden change of philosophy. I will often refuse to eat out with co-workers, choosing rather to pack leftovers or eat a delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwich (salmonella free, please). After shutting off the pump, I shake the gasoline hose at the refueling station thoroughly, to make sure that every last drop enters my tank. My thought is: if I do this every 4 days (my refueling frequency), I will have given myself an extra half-gallon of gas in about 10 years. Most people would just let it evaporate, even though they paid for it! I was even shrinking our grocery budget last summer when food prices were sky rocketing. Top Ramen is fine with me. There was a time when I had a $5/mo cell phone (for emergencies only) and drove a 700 dollar '91 Toyota Camry to work (45 miles, 1 way). It went through 1 quart of oil per day, and had no working A/C. It literally died, while doing 75mph on the freeway, and would never start again. Anyway, I digress. My point is, I am almost as tight as they come (I have friends who are much tighter, which is why I say almost... trust me...). But the truth is, I've reached a financial milestone and am now beginning to slowly reward myself and my family for the support they've given me in this endeavor. Alaris is eagerly waiting the delivery of a front loading washer and dryer set which she has been wanting since she began taking on laundry duty when we were married 5 years ago, these will be delivered June 1st. All of these things are paid for with cold hard cash™. I want to show my family and anyone who is following the "written budget" plan that there can be and is light at the end of the tunnel. It is starting to come into view for us. Being on a budget sucks! It's no fun at all, and it takes all I've got to actually write one out. But it is absolutely worth it, and I will recommend it to anyone. It takes a few months to get it right, like anything it requires practice. Sometimes it seems like taming the dollars is like herding cats, but somehow a written plan leaves a few in the bag.

I'm sorry if this seams preachy. Thats not the intent. Future posts might be more entertaining, who knows. Just wait until I start talking (macro) economics, the Austrian school and politics, then you'll really know that I've gone off the deep end! I'll try to keep them few and far between to keep you interested in what you really care about - pictures of our kids - until then...

--Justin