Getting our Money Makeover On

Since we're currently taking a break from fertility treatments and worrying about trying to get pregnant, we have decided to focus on some other things to better our lives.

Not only am I doing the gluten free diet to get my body to work somewhat normal.  Someday has also been watching what he eats and exercising.  So far he is down 42 pounds since December 15th.  Woohoo!!!

Along with all of that we decided after the miscarriage to take charge of our lives.  When we got pregnant in October we were scared.  Not going to flub about that at all.  As are many people when they find out their pregnant.  Whether they went through fertility treatments or not.  We knew we would be just fine, but we also knew once we paid for daycare, diaper costs, the expensive delivery costs since my insurance sucks, and finishing the remodel on our home.  We wouldn't be living as comfortable financially as we had hoped.

In November Someday text me while at work and it said, "I'm Gazelle intense!"  I knew what this comment was from.  It was from Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover, and he says it often on his radio show.  I text him back asking him how he knew that phrase, and he said he downloaded the audiobook and he's ready to go.  Ready to get Gazelle Intense and get our financials in line to better the future for our family.

Oh hell yeah!

Then it began.  Now, we're your average run of the mill, mid 20 year olds.  We have student loan debt of course, car loans, and a mortgage.  We always felt like we were in a good financial state.  I mean come on, we pay our bills on time with ease, have money in savings, and we go on trips and do things we enjoy.  We also didn't have any credit card debt.  When we compared ourselves to our friends we were doing pretty well.
Then throw a family into the mix.  When talking to my boss about maternity leave, he told me that I could take as much time as I wanted.  My job wasn't going anywhere and they would work with me on whatever I wanted to do.  My response, "I can't afford to take more than the minimum 6 weeks."  That hurt.  It hurt both me and Someday.  Wait, we can't afford to go without my income?  Why?  Oh, that's right, because we have payments.
So onto the Total Money Makeover we went.  When you're told that you have to have fertility treatments in order to have a family, and said fertility treatments aren't covered by insurance, you quickly figure out what needs to be done to make that happen.  What are we doing wrong?  What do we need to do differently?  We can't afford to move forward with treatment for another year because we need to save up money to be able to afford the next round.  When we figured up exactly how much that amount was, it was ridiculous.  How is it going to take us a year to save up that little bit of money?  We make good money.  That shouldn't be the case.

Now here we are almost 6 months after making this decision.  Our families probably think we're crazy, we've lost friends because they are making judgments about us selling things (guess they weren't good friends anyways), and we're telling people no constantly about doing things and going out to dinner.  This is our life now.  While all of our friends are having children, we're focusing on getting 100% debt free so we can afford to pay to conceive ours.

Gluten Free Baby!

Okay, don't get all excited.  The word "baby" isn't in the heading because I'm going to have a baby.  But it's in the heading because Gluten Free is working!!!!

Yeah that's right.  It's working!  This girl is having a normal cycle like a normal woman would without any assistance.  That's unheard of for me.

So here's the lowdown on it.  Gluten free is exactly that.  Eating nothing with gluten in it.  My Dr was sort of against this, but I decided that the least I could do was give it a shot.  What do I have to lose?  Another 90 day cycle?
Normally I'm not a "hippie" person, but now I am understanding the concept of not putting things in your body that shouldn't be there.  Those Cheetos?  Yeah, they're still processed.  Even if they say "organic" on the bag.  They're still a processed puff that isn't cheese in its normal state.  So why not avoid things that are processed too?
So that is what I've been doing.  Eating as many fruits, veggies, and meat as I want.  Yet avoiding things that are processed or have gluten in them.  If you think about it, things with hormones in them will probably affect your hormones, right?  Make sense?  I think it does.

Here's the way I view it.
Fertility treatment = $3,000-$12,000.
Gluten Free = $30 on some start up gluten free flour for baking, but just tweaking your regular meals.

Yeah, I'll take that.