Have you all been sticking around to see our budget updates for the past year? Have you now been waiting to hear what our goal is going to be for this next year since I told you it was changing?
Well you are in luck! Today I will share. :)
Let's recap a bit, shall we? Our goal for 2015 was to eliminate as much debt as possible while still living a great life. I am so happy to say that from February 2015 to January 2016 we were able to pay off/eliminate $65,473! That is insane! I am so proud of us! We sold three cars, a boat, paid off two store credit cards, paid off our ever increasing vet bills for those two love bugs of ours, a personal loan and two credit cards! I couldn't be more proud of my husband and I for working towards our goal each and every week to come up with this amazing number at the end of just 12 months!
Our budget goals for 2016, March 2016 - March 2017, is to completely eliminate our credit card debt! Not going to lie to you on this one, we have let the credit card be the last thing we really work on because it is the highest amount of debt.
We are currently sitting at about $14K. It hurts us to see that number each and every month and because of that, we are making this our main focus.
After getting our W2s in January we realized that we make a pretty penny. A pretty penny more then we really realized and a pretty penny amount to where we shouldn't feel as broke as we do each and every week.
With that we decided to make paying off this stupid credit card our main focus for the year. We know that it is going to be tough, but we managed through a tough year of finances last year and we are willing to make the sacrifices to get rid of this last major stresser in our financial lives.
Right now, if you don't include any interest, we are looking at needing to pay over $1000 each and every month for the next 12 months to get rid of this sucker. That breaks down to, let's just say, $300 each week! With a baby on the way and a very active toddler already in our house, oh yeah, and two dogs and a husband, we have major expenses that can't take the back burner while we plow out that number.
We have set a plan to use all of Ryan's bonus money and contest money and put it towards the credit card. We have been very lucky in the past that Ryan has maxed out his contest earnings and bonus earnings each and every time. If we can continue on that path I don't think we will have any problems reaching our goal.
Another helpful factor in reaching this goal is the fact that we just got our tax return back and just like last year we are using that to help us get ahead. We have already put aside 4 months of car payments into an account so that when I am on maternity leave (thank you CA for giving us that time paid!) we don't have to worry about that. I also just got a raise at work that will help increase our income each month which can help go towards these big payments we want to make.
By March 2017 we are hoping that we can have just our house and two car payments. We want to live the best life possible with our boys and that is possible right now, but it is a little more difficult. We want them to know financial responsibility all while not having to worry about whether or not we can afford to do certain things.
Wish us luck in this next hefty goal of ours and if you have any advice leave a comment below! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment