I am very happy with how our family is doing financially. I have been diligent in keeping our/my spending down, and minimizing house projects. (Which are always 3x the amount I planned on them being).
Updates:
1) Scott was accepted into RIT’s Masters in Business program. He starts September 3rd. Therefore, as of September 3rd our family just accrued 50,000 more of debt. YIKES. Thankfully he will be making that money and them some back upon graduation. But it did help to keep things into perspective. We need to eliminate all other debt before we have to pay this loan back.
2) I did great with our weekly grocery budget. I planned all of our meals out. I gave myself a $175 budget for 14 days, and at the end of the two weeks I had $57.00 left over! That is a huge win for me. I also did not have any random shopping trips where we spent 70-150 bucks!
3) I created another sheet for my finances binder. It is the cover page, so at a quick glance I can see what bill has and which bills have not been paid for the month.
All of our monthly bills are filled out under the Pay Me! column. You’ll notice the pink flowers, they are next to bills that we can pay off, and never ever have to pay again. I’ve already been able to cross one of those out…it felt amazing!! Good Bye, Car Payment! Waahoo!!
Scott and I just had a conversation about finances, which is also new for us. I usually take care of everything. It has been nice to have someone else know where we stand, and create a plan together on how to reach our financial dreams. We have decided to follow the Dave Ramsey 7 steps to financial freedom. Though we have already made some changes to better suit our family. Ie. Step 1, he says that you need to save 1,000 in an emergency fund. We both agreed, that since we already had more than 1,000 in our emergency fund, we would put just a bit more in and then stop. Neither one of us felt comfortable with 1,000. But so far, that is the only change.
We are officially onto step two. Paying down debt, using the snowball method. I’ve already been challenged with the ever presence of the need/want for more home improvement projects. I REALLY want to paint our living room on Saturday, but in my heart I know that money would be better spent elsewhere… but it is a tough battle…
I am going to try and stick with finishing the projects around the house, that we already have all the supplies for…
Anyone else out there, working on gaining financial freedom? Or have you already gone down that road and you are enjoying being on the other side? I’d love to hear your stories!!
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