It’s that time again for us to reevaluate our budget. As I had mentioned in an earlier post, we have decided to work hard to become completely debt free. We are following the 7 Baby Steps to Financial Freedom from Dave Ramsey and are in step 2 with a bit of step 4 & 5 mixed in.
I’m going to start by saying that there were a lot of positive steps we made in December. We had one of our cars paid off and, well, sent to a junk yard, due to unforeseen circumstances (accident) and then had to scrape together money to pay cash for a used car to replace it. We paid all cash for Christmas and used Swagbucks for the rest. We went another whole month without putting one single penny on a charge card. Those are all the positive things I’m hanging onto. Why, because my new loans for college tuition just came through. Ouch!
So, the 17% reduction in our debt that we saw at the end of November is no longer. We have shot back up to a reduction of only 5%. Ouch, ouch! The one thing I have to stay focused on is that if we had not worked so hard to get to where we are now, the addition of that college loan on top of everything else would have killed us. I did know it was coming so I did plan for it but still, it hurts. But, we are positive and focused and on a roll to continue with our debt free mission. We only have 6 more years of college to pay for but who’s counting.
With all that is going on with college loans I can tell you one thing. Paying bills is such a relief now. I know that seems strange to say but there was a time that I used to get knots in my stomach when I had to sit down and pay the bills. It was usually at that time that I would catch up on debit charges we made during the month only to find out that over spent in areas cutting in the bill money. Then the juggling would begin. Now, with every dollar assigned to an account (grocery, mortgage, gift, house repair, etc), sitting down to pay bills is so simple and painless. The money is always there because it was assigned there at the beginning of the month. Doing that makes you so much more aware of what you are spending and how much you have left to spend.
So, even though we have lost a little ground, we are still headed in a direction that is leading us to financial independence. And, it’s the only direction I want to be headed.
My hope in posting my makeover progress is to inspire others to live below your means and live debt free.
“The amount of money you have has nothing to do with what you earn. People earning a million dollars a year can have no money and people earning $35,000 a year can be quite well off. It’s not what you earn, it’s what you spend.”
-Paul Clitheroe
