Letter From the Poor

Over a month ago Adam and I decided to send this little decree out:

Letter From the Poor

Family and Friends,
Like everyone else on the planet, the Moon/Zenk residence has decided to start this year with an outrageous goal.

Let's  state the obvious:

We like money.
We want more money.
We want to be wealthy enough to share money.

But we're still in debt.
….So we're going to become workaholics and not going to spend ANY of our green.

Here's the math:
Normal pace = 6.1 years to get out of debt.
Trotting pace = 2.8 years to get out of debt.
Gazelle Intense pace = 1 year. ONE YEAR PEOPLE! Say whaaaat?!

Consequently, in front of us is a shiny, new, waist squeezing budget. And it includes sound effects like this one:

          NO

We are going to say it a lot. You might worry we don't like you anymore. Or even worse you'll say we've "changed" and have become *gulp* LAME. We will probably be thinking the same thing about ourselves, and it's going to be hard.

But we still love you. And when we aren't busy shoveling ourselves out of debt we would still like to see you.

We like Netflix, games, and are always up for something FREE!

We could use your help too:
Adam's new business, Ultrim is looking for projects. They do finish work and build wooden furniture. If you have any leads please send them his way. Anna is weighing her options but it is becoming more clear that the best path is a full time job. She will still take print design work though—so send people her way. Both parties are up for an odd job here and there too.

Also a word of encouragement is always welcome—cheerleader style if you please, and video taped of course, so we can watch it during moments of weakness. :)

Thank you for understanding and all your support,
We love you all the way!

-Adam and Anna

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The letter was well received! Within an hour of sending it, our mobile devices started dinging with words of encouragement from many of you! So thanks. The letter was hard to send, and hearing from you put us at peace.

How Are Things Going?

Really well! We've acquired a couple of tricks that gave us an extra $289 to add to our already whopping payment toward debt last month. 

Tricks

• Eating out : We gave ourselves a tiny allowance and we share EVERYTHING. This has saved us a ton!

• Meal Planning: I know you've heard this trick before. And I've tried to do it but really hated the planning part. However, I started to use Pinterest and it has changed our life! Every week I create a new board called "Menu" where I pin 3-4 meals and base all my grocery shopping on them. We came in $90 under budget, and still ate really great food. (Mind you, there is nothing else in the house to eat…but that's ok.)

I have also ramped things up to get a job. (I applied for one yesterday in fact.) I'll talk about that a little later. 

So all in all —things are on the up'n up! Thank you for your encouragement—it really is helpful.