6 Month Budget Update - February thru July 2016

Hey everyone!  I feel like it has been forever since I have done a budget update, and let's be completely honest - it's been forever since I've blogged in general!

We have been sticking to our goal of paying off debt over the last six months but with life always changing and things being thrown at us constantly, we have had our ups and downs.

Let's start with the beginning of the past 6 months...I was 28ish weeks pregnant and Ryan decided to quit his job.  Talk about a major stresser!  Ryan had been unhappy with his job for quite some time but stuck it out because it was what was best for our family.  Now Ryan was having to go out of town for military training for 4 weeks and his employer at the time was not happy about it and made it very clear and went about things that weren't so nice, or very legal for that matter.  Instead of fighting something that wasn't ideal for our family anymore, Ryan quit his job and knew that he would find something better.  Within 2 days Ryan had another job lined up for when he returned from his training.  Being 28 weeks pregnant with our second child was not the ideal time to become a 1 income household, but luckily I married a man who will always do whatever it takes to provide for his family.

Fast forward the 4 weeks and Ryan's return home from the longest absence since Caleb has been born, and he started his new job.  He hated it.  It wasn't what he was told when he interviewed and after 1 day decided that it wasn't for him and started searching for another job.  He found his current job the next day and quit at the end of the week.  Ryan is now back in a sales position for an amazing employer and has great hours and is so much more relaxed and happy.  It has done wonders for our family and we couldn't be more proud of him.

So now we will fast forward to the birth of our precious little boy!  He is the missing piece to our puzzle and we couldn't be happier that he is here, healthy and happy!  We had planned for baby expenses as much as possible, but it is never enough right?  My work has a healthy living program of sorts and if you get your annual physical and submit the paperwork you get free money loaded onto a debit card!  We got $600 just for going to our annual physicals and we used that for the birth costs this time around.  That was a huge weight off of our shoulders considering that we had a little hefty bill from Caleb's delivery.  Our little guy and I had an amazing 3 weeks of nursing but after complications on my end, we had to cut our journey short and he is now on formula 100% and doing just fine.  But with that comes the cost of formula, which we were hoping to avoid for a little bit longer, but things happen and you have to roll with them.  He is a little pig and right now we are spending about $30/week on formula.  We are so lucky though that we got plenty of diapers from friends and family to where we have only had to buy 1 small pack of diapers, and that was for convenience not necessity.  And I made sure to buy Caleb a box of diapers and a box of wipes before I went into Labor so we haven't had to have that expense over the past 2 months either.

Before I went out on Maternity Leave and we got our tax return money we had put enough money in an account to cover 4 months of my car payment.  I did this on purpose because I knew that things would be tight and it would be one less bill we I had to stress about.  I'm so glad we did this because it has made our summer a little bit easier considering that we already know one whole bill is taken care of no matter what.

Another way we are striving is that we are lucky enough to live in a state that pays for Maternity Leave.  I get paid 4 weeks before birth, 6 weeks after birth for recovery and then an additional 6 weeks after that for bonding.  In total, I get paid two thirds of my pay for 4 months to stay home with my baby.  It has been amazing and it is a total pro for living in CA!  With my money we make sure that our mortgage is paid.  Again, another thing that we don't have to worry about and can count on being taken care of each and every month.

We were lucky enough to take a small vacation I guess you could call it.  If you follow me on SnapChat or IG you will already know this, but we flew to Nashville, TN and drove back home to California.  Now as torturous as that sounds, it wasn't that bad, but I will save that for another post :)

With Ryan's new job and my MatLeave we have been able to have one amazing summer together as a new family of 4.  We are still striving to give our boys the best lives possible all without being miserable.  Here is how we did over the past 6 months:

February: $2,755.00
March: $2,880.00
April: $3,180.00
May: $2,475.00
June: $2,718.00
July: $2,840.00
Total: $16,848.00

Now in no way were the past 6 months not stressful!  Hell!  Just last weekend I was crying about our money situation.  There are always going to be storm clouds on the horizon you just have to keep your head up and keep moving towards the sun.  So poetic eh?  I must thank my husband for always telling me we will find a way and for actually believing it.  He is always positive and that is what I need.  We keep it real in our house and we aren't millionaires, but we are trying our hardest to maintain the life we love to live.

If you have great budgeting tips or ideas, please share them below in a comment or email me.  I love learning how others budget and reach their goals.  And if you have more questions on how we do certain things in our budget, also let me know.  I love talking about it and won't keep anything to myself except for our account numbers and passwords :)

2016 Budget Goals

Hi!

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! :)

Budget Update - January

January's Budget Update will be short and sweet.

We are in the home stretch of our year of budgeting and although we aren't stopping, we are changing goals a bit in the next 12 months.  More on this later, promise.

January was a good month.  Not the best but definitely not the worst either.  We had big payments that we had to come up with in order to meet some deadlines, and luckily, we were able to meet them.

In January we were faced with making our first payment for Ryan's new truck along with my car and although we knew we could handle it, the due dates being 5 days apart was going to be sticky.

Overall, we made it through it all and were able to pay off $3,350!  This was a great month and every penny helps get us closer to our ultimate goal of having little to no debt.

We are working on our last month of this yearly challenge we have had with ourselves and it feels great.  2016's budget goal is focused on less things, but they are big.  Stick around to hear more about those!

Budget Update - December

So I know this is far overdue, but better late then never, especially since I can't wait to look back on these someday and see how hard we worked to get ourselves out of debt.

December was bound to be a smaller debt payoff month for us.  We knew that Ryan was going to be missing his regular paychecks for two weeks due to working for the Army.  Then with Christmas approaching, we just knew it wasn't going to be the best month.

Our plan was simple: pay the bills as normal and don't use the credit card or put ourselves in a pinch due to presents.  We managed to keep this going the entire month and did an awesome Christmas without harming our progress that we had made so far.

With Ryan missing those paychecks (we got paid, just not the two weeks before Christmas) I knew that planning would be especially key for this month.  I scheduled things as much as possible and kept up-to-date on our spreadsheet daily!

I am so excited to say that even with these obstacles stated above we still managed to pay off $3,170 this month!

I am so incredibly proud of us!!!

Progress so far:

February 2015: $5,108

March 2015: $2,829

April 2015: $8,673

May 2015: $13,879

June 2015: $3,140

July 2015: $2,829

August 2015: $2,340

September 2015: $2,870

October 2015: $4,845

November 2015: $12,440

December 2015: $3,170

Almost one year done and I am so impressed with what we have been able to accomplish!

Budget Update - November

Oh November, you were good to us!  We had a very successful month due to the fact that we were able to make such great decisions at the end of October.

We made the plunge at getting Ryan a new truck this month.  Ryan's truck died on him, once again, while he was driving home to get Caleb and we knew it was time to look at our options.  Now our options weren't great, but we made the best one we could.  We traded in Ryan's truck for as much as we could possibly get for it and got Ryan into a newer and better truck that makes his little boy heart so happy!  We did up the payment a little bit due to the fact that we still owed some on Ryan's truck, but overall we are pleased with it.  And might I add that Mama likes to drive the new big truck! :)

We announced our next baby coming in May this month and with that came all kinds of worrisome thoughts about budget and money.  We have time and I have already set a plan for us to make sure we don't get in this pickle again with this little babe like we did with sweet little Caleb.  We are so looking forward to expanding our family with another two little feet and the budget will be making adjustments to accommodate.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving and tried to start our Christmas shopping so that we were jamming it all into two paychecks at the end.  We are trying to find deals where we can for presents that won't make it seem like we didn't want to try.  So far we have almost everyone finished except our parents, geesh!

Now for the money part!  In November we paid off $12,440!  A huge chunk of that was the truck but overall I am still happy with it!  We went another month with no credit card usage.  We haven't been able to put money in our regular savings account yet, but we haven't had to use anything out of our emergency savings account either.  I consider this a huge win for us this month and can't wait to see what our total number will be at the 1 year mark!

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We have completed 10 months of this journey and we have managed to pay off $57,626.88!!!  Do you think we can make it to $80k by the end of February 2016?!?  What a goal for us to try and achieve!!!!

Budget Update - October

I can't believe that another month has passed and we have almost been on this journey for a full year now!  It has definitely been a roller coaster, but it is all worth it.

We are doing so well and I am beyond proud of us.  I keep thinking that this month has to be the best it will be, but then we managed to out do ourselves time and time again and where we are now is honestly amazing!!!

Let's get started shall we?

Remember last month during my update I mentioned that October was most likely going to be a big month for us?  Well we were right!  We made the decision, as a family, that Ryan would sign a contract for another 6 years in the Army Reserves.  That's right folks, we are staying in and it is honestly what is best for all of us.  It provides us with an extra income and Ryan truly does love being part of the Army.

Well with that contract came a pretty penny that definitely had BILLS written all over it.  We had a number in mind of what we would get, after taxes and everything, set it lower then we were really hoping for and budgeted around that.

In October, thanks to that extra little chunk of money we managed to pay off...$4845!!!!!

So that means that we were able to completely pay off both of our medical bills, a personal loan, one credit card, one company card and make our car, truck and house payments.

We also replenished our $1000 emergency savings account and have successfully not used a single credit card since August 19th!

We were able to pay cash for Hank's most recent training and also are paying cash for Ryan's duck blind this year.

We have set ourselves up for a great winter and we can't wait to see how it continues.  The next big chunk of money we are hoping for is our tax return in a few months and that will get us that much closer to being debt free :) - well just having the house and two car payments, which is completely fine with us!

We are now looking at having almost $2000 per month to use for groceries, gas, pet items, baby items and fun living.  That is huge!!!

I am so incredibly proud of us and I look forward to updating you again on how November went :)

Budget Update - September

So here we are, another month has gone by and it is time for our monthly budget update.

If you are new to these parts, let me give you a quick recap.

My hubs and I live a great life, we both work, own a house, two cars, two dogs, a handsome little 1-year-old and love having a great time with friends and family.  Well with all of that came debt and this is the little story of how we are working our way out of it.

We plan on expanding our family and would like to do so with as little, to no debt, as possible.  We've had great months, and we have had horrible months.  But together we are working on it and we see improvement everyday.

My biggest goal at this point, besides having ZERO debt is to live life off of what we bring in each payday and not have to use our credit cards.

I can honestly say that we have not put a single charge onto any credit card for the entire month of SEPTEMBER!  THAT'S HUGE GUYS!!! :)  Now it does mean that we may not have put as much money towards the debt as we would have like to, but it does mean that we aren't adding to it, which is just as important!

I have looked at this whole debt eliminating journey as a way to learn to live within our means while still living the best and most rewarding type of life.  We want a happy and fun home for our family and being debt free is a great place to end up.  So grab a cup of ________ (whatever you fancy really) and sit back and enjoy this month's update.

And if you are new, go check it out from the beginning here.

So for the month of September we paid off $2,870!

We got our priorities back in line and started working from our highest interest rates again.  We took whatever "spare" money we had and put it towards whatever was necessary.  Now as I said above we did not use our credit cards once this month, but we have been depleting our emergency savings account.  We have a plan to get that replenished though in the next 2-3 weeks so we are hoping that all works out.

We had a great summer and slacked a little, but we are back and ready to kick it in overdrive and if things work out how we hope they are going to in the next couple of weeks, October's update will be a huge number! :)

Budget Update - August

Well here we are, another month has gone by and it is time for a debt elimination journey update.  We honestly didn't have a very high pay off month, but we did have fun.  We managed to go on a vacation, which I know I have written about yet, and have been enjoying a lot of family time.  We are rich with love and support and will continue to work away at our debt.

The end of July brought us some new debt and we hope to have those paid off in the next week or so, but here is how August went.

We weren't able to make any additional payments this month on anything, but we did make our standard payments so the total will probably look very similar.

For the month of August we paid off another $2340!

It isn't the greatest, but it is better then nothing.  We are planning on a couple of bonuses this next month and have big plans for them and paying off debt.  Here is to hoping that next month is a little more successful!

Budget Update - July

Here we are.  Another month down in our journey to being debt free - or living with less debt I should say.

July was a good month for us overall, but had some sticky situations that we had to get ourselves out of.  Let's just start with the sticky, shall we?

We started the month with a commuter car that needed $800 in repairs.  We bought this car with money from our savings account knowing that it would save us anywhere from $200-$400 per month in gas!  It was so worth it!  Well after just a few weeks of actually driving it, we discovered the repairs that needed to be done.  We made the tough decision to try and sell the car and get close to what we paid for it.  After no luck for several weeks - I hate Craigslist for this reason - we finally found a used car lot sale not too far from us that allows you to set your price, stage your car and wait for someone to call asking to buy.  They have a huge success rate and within our car being there for 3 hours, it was sold!  We didn't get the amount we paid for it, but overall we were happy with what we got after trying for several weeks.

Another rough situation was that Ronin went to the vet for his next round of shots and we ended up finding out that he has a double ear infection!  Seriously??  Caleb hasn't even gotten an ear infection yet, and 3 weeks after having Ronin he has one in both ears!?  UGH!  As soon as I heard that I could only think of dollar signs.  We, of course, would spend whatever it takes to make sure our babies, fur or human, are taken care of, but it is pricey and not what we would choose to spend our money on.  So now this prim prince has to have ear drops in both ears once a day for 10 days - and hopefully stops dunking his head in the water bucket!

So after those two bumps, we definitely had some highs this month.

We had a garage sale!  The first one we have ever had together and over a year after we moved into our home.  To say we have plenty to sell is an understatement!  We had my mom and her husband come up and help us out - doing it for the first time without my mom just wasn't an option :)  We staged everything, got the signs hung and waited for the buyers to come.  They came, did they ever!  We had people showing up before our signs even said we were starting and it was awesome.  Such a high bringing in the cash and seeing our things that we no longer need go.  We had planned on only having our sale for about 4-5 hours and one day only.  We dropped prices and were practically giving things away for a steal in order to not have to move it all back in our house.  After 4.5 hours of selling we called it a day and it was a bummer for me.  We still had a bunch of stuff left over, but I had to keep reminding myself that we did great.  We managed to sell about half of our stuff and made $140!  That is $140 more then we had when we started that Saturday morning and it means that we can have another garage sale in the future - especially considering that all of the stuff is still on tables in my garage, AH!

We sold the commuter car, as mentioned above, and decided to put that money back into our accounts rather then spending it.  We put a little chunk into our savings and put the rest into additional debt payments.

In total for our 6th month of debt eliminating we paid off $2,829.43!  I can also say, with such excitement, that we only used our credit card once and that was to buy gas the last week of July!  This is such an accomplishment for us.  It has been our goal to not use our credit card unless absolutely necessary, and this month, we absolutely accomplished that!

We have set a $20/week allowance for each of us which is working so well.  We also went through our freezers and made a list of everything we have for dinners and came up with 31 meals - that is over a month worth of dinners at home that we have already paid for that won't cost us a dime!  We are trying really hard to make our money stretch and we are slowly, but surely, getting there.

And since it has now been 6 months, let's do a big recap.

February: $5,108.00
March: $2,829.00
April: $8,672.93
May: $13,879.59
June: $3,140.00
July: $2,829.43
Total: $36,459.26

I couldn't be more proud of us.  We are making big changes in our lives and it will only benefit us in the end.  We can't wait to see what these next 6 months bring and hopefully in the end we will be so close to our ultimate goal of just having the house and two car payments.

Budget Update - June

We have hit our plateau people...and it sucks!

June was not as successful as we would have hoped in any sense.

Ryan's truck broke down.  I mean, while I was on the phone with him while he was driving with Caleb in his truck, his truck broke down.  We had to get it towed to our mechanic and it was in the shop for a couple of days.  Luckily our mechanic is a family friend and does our work for cost and doesn't charge us out the booty for labor.  That set us back a pretty little penny and hurt our hearts a bit.

We also decided to buy a small commuter car for Ryan.  Ryan's truck gets maybe, maybe, 18 MPG on a good day.  He drives 80 miles a day to work and to pick up Caleb from my mom's.  We bit the bullet and pulled a little money from our savings account to get him a 1999 commuter car to hopefully save us gas.  This seemed like such a great move.  Yes, it sucked to pull money from our savings, but if we could save even $200/month in gas money it would be worth it.  Bad side?  It has an oil leak and since we got Ryan's truck out of the shop, the hoopdy - what I call it - has now been in.  I am dreading getting that bill back.  But I'm still hoping it will be a win for us in the long run.

As much as the two things mentioned above sucked, we did pay some debt off this month.  Overall, we paid off $3140!

It isn't the huge numbers we managed to pay off in month's past but it is still something.  Better then nothing and still getting us closer to our ultimate goal of paying off most of our debt by the end of 2015.

I thought I would also do an update on our total debt since it has been 5 solid months of debt eliminating and things have fluctuated so much.

If you remember back when we started I told you that we were starting this challenge with about $50k in debt.  We kicked butt for the first 3 months paying off almost $17k!  Our 4th month was even more amazing, due to making some good choices, and we paid off almost $14k!  Together, in 4 months, we managed to pay off almost $31k in debt!  AMAZING!!!!

But with paying off, comes other things that take their place, unfortunately.  We decided to get me a new car.  We decided to get Ryan a commuter (not that that increased our debt in any way because we paid cash for it).  As it stands, today, the beginning of our 6th month in eliminating our debt, we have about $71k in debt that we would like to not have someday.  Obviously this includes my new car, which we know won't be paid off, and Ryan's truck.  Without those two things we have about $16k left to try and pay off!

We are doing great and if we can stick to what we have been doing and attempt to do even a little bit more, I see no reason why we won't be able to just have a car, truck and house payment by the end of 2015.

Thank you for all of your kind words and encouragement on my past budget posts.  It really helps with my motivation :)  If you have missed any of our budget updates you can check those out here.

Budget Update - May

Can you believe May is over already?!?  This year is seriously flying by!  My baby will be 1 before we know it and our year will be over and we will see how much progress we have made in this debt-free journey we are on.

If you have missed the past 3 months of our journey, you can read all about it here, here and here.

May was another good month for us.  We made some hard decisions and in the end it is paying off for us.

We decided to sell our boat.  We bought this boat as soon as we bought our house, well practically.  We were excited and in a good position, with the baby not costing us any money yet and me still working.  Ryan was happy, I was happy, and we had a boat that our family could go out on during the summer.  I never went out on this boat.  When I was pregnant Ryan didn't feel comfortable taking me out on it.  After Caleb was born he didn't feel comfortable taking Caleb out on it.  This to us was a bad situation.  Why are we going to have a family "toy" that only Ryan can use?  So Ryan put it up on Craigslist and after many, many, many people saying they liked it, we finally got a buyer!  We sold the boat, didn't make any profit, but got rid of our debt from that.  Selling the boat cleared up $11,339.59!!!  We do want to get another boat, but this time we want to make the right decision and hopefully not take out as big of a loan with manageable payments.

Along with selling the boat we made our normal payments and are working on getting our other balances lowered.  I called our cable company and got our bill lowered, or so I thought, and was told we would be saving $20/month!  I was stoked.  Then the bill came and it turns out they didn't tell us the whole truth.  We are now going to demand they lower our bill to what was promised or we will be cancelling our service with them.  We can go without cable.  As much as I would dislike it, we could do it.  We already have Netflix and Hulu is cheaper even if we have to find a new Internet provider.

You might think that by my statements above that I am a little coo-coo on how I think this whole thing works; "Sara, you sold your car that was almost paid off and bought another car adding a ginormous amount of debt to you.  You sold your boat and are now talking about just buying another boat.  You talk about getting rid of cable but instead purchases Hulu and separate Internet."  I know, I know.  But we are not trying to live on top ramen and be miserable.  We are trying to make it possible for us to live the life we want and not waste our money on things we don't, like credit card interest.  We are willing to justify paying interest on a boat, because it is something we love and enjoy, rather then paying interest on a credit card that we opened out of necessity and took advantage of and no longer need.

Overall, May wasn't a "pay off a ton of vendors" month, but it was a "pay off a huge amount of debt" month.  In total we paid off $13,879.59!!!!!!!!  In this one month we paid off almost as much as we were able to in the last 3 months combined!  I'm so proud of us!  We are sticking to our goal and making things happen.  We still have 6 debts that we would like to pay off, 4 of which are absolutely necessary, and I think that we can get really close to our goal.

Budget Update - April

So here we are.  Another month of eliminating debt and 3 months down on our journey to being mostly debt free by the end of 2015.

April had ups and downs with our budget.  We had some really exciting highs and some really low lows and some highs that turned into lows and lows that turned into highs :)  Does that make sense?

Let's start from the beginning.

We sold my car.  Yes!  That was a huge pay off of $5698.34!!!  Now as exciting as that was, I can't be without a car, so we bought a new vehicle for me.  Yes, that means that we are now in more debt, but my car had a lot of miles on it, no warranty of any kind and was going to most likely need expensive maintenance in the upcoming future.  So we thought it best to get me a newer car, higher off the ground, still family friendly and something with a warranty so that we don't have to stress about car repairs and that monetary side of things.  This was a high, mixed with a little low, but we are super happy!

Next, we paid off Ryan's medical bill that he acquired after a food poisoning incident back in November.  We have great medical insurance, but ER visits can be pricey and this one was.  We have been paying monthly on it, but this month we were finally able to pay it off completely!  Another $132.50 paid off!

Lastly, we paid off our couch!  Last May when we bought our house our previous couch didn't match at all with the wall colors.  And since we were eager and excited we ran out the next weekend and bought a brand new couch!  The first time either of us had ever bought a big piece of furniture brand new!  We did get an interest free loan for a year and this month we were getting close to the end and decided to pay it off!  That was another $271.09 gone from our debt!

We also had re-financed our house back in March and had our first new lower mortgage payment due this month and those extra $200 this month saved was awesome!

I went ahead and opened up another savings and another checking account this month also.  We now have an emergency savings account with $1000 in it, a checking account for our monthly bills, a checking account for our mortgage, a checking account for spending and a savings account that we are working on building up a nice safety net.  We were actually able to put a nice amount of money into savings this month as well and we are working towards getting 3 months worth of expenses put away for a rainy day, or for the next maternity leave stint :)

Overall for the month of April we paid off a total debt amount of $8672.93!  We got rid of $450.00 in monthly payments we were making meaning that we were using our credit card a whole lot less this month to get by.  

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And now, since we completed 3 months of debt elimination I decided that I would do a bigger recap of what we have accomplished so far.

We started out with about $50,000 debt back in February.  I had this awesome spreadsheet with 22 tabs for every single bill we had each month.  We had credit payments going to 12 different vendors/companies and we were not rolling in the dough.  Things were out of hand!

I gathered a plan for us, we talked it out, agreed on a plan and away we went with kicking our debt down little by little.  And this is what happened:

In February, the month we started this journey, we paid off $5108.

In March we paid off $2829.

And now in April we paid off $8672.93.

After 3 months of really focusing on eliminating our debt, without jeopardizing our nice life too much, we paid off $16,609.93!!!!!!  That is about 33% of our total debt in 3 months!  We got down to 7 vendors/companies and 15 tabs on my spreadsheet!  That means that at this rate we could have this $50,000 paid off in 9-10 months!  That would put us really close to our goal!

And honestly, as I am typing that out I am getting more excited!  I am getting more motivated to make that happen.  I see a spot where that could actually be possible!  :)

I am really proud of us and am excited that our plans are working.  The highs and the lows come and go, but in the end we are working on it as a team and that is making it so much easier!

Budget Update - March

So if you forgot, we are working hard to reduce eliminate our debt.  We started on February 1st and we are continuing once again this month.

We did amazing in February, you can read about it here, and I had even higher, more realistic goals for March.  In February we paid off a 10% of our debt which was amazing, but a big chunk of that was due to us getting our tax return back.

This month was trickier in the way to find out how to pay off as much as possible without that extra income.  Back in January we started the process of refinancing our house.  We haven't even been in it a year yet and the rates have dropped so it couldn't hurt.  We got our interest rate dropped a whole percent and are saving an additional $200 each month from this!

While we are saving these extra $450 a month now from paying off debt/refinancing, I am not seeing it yet directly.  It discourages me, but I have to realize that just because I don't see an additional $450 in our bank account doesn't mean I don't see a decrease in our credit card spending.  I do.  I see that we are able to use our checking account for a lot more things and use our credit card way less.

I know people say to just get rid of the card so you don't use it, but it isn't that easy for us.  For example, Ryan's debit card broke, in the sense that the strip no longer works and he can't use his card.  This means that either he has to use our credit card for all purchases until we get a new one or I do.  We, of course, limited our spending since this happened, but needing gas is a necessity that we can't go without.

So an overview of our debt elimination for the month of March: $2829!  While it isn't 10%, it's better than nothing and we are slowly, but surely, making our way to a debt free life.

Money is such a stressful thing that most couples don't deal with/talk about until it is too late.  I'm glad that we are both on board with this plan and I can't wait to see where we are in the next couple of months.

Budget Update - February

So February was, once again, our month that we started really focusing on our money.  We started out our home-ownership with very little debt - comparatively - and since then we got a little out of control.  I mentioned to you all the ways that we were going to stay focused last week and I am happy to be here to let you know how our first month went.

Our ultimate goal is to have a majority of our debt paid off by the end of 2015, all while still being able to live a good life and have fun.

Starting out, in February, including our home, we had about $300,000 in debt.

Now, take away our house, because let's be honest, that debt won't be gone by the end of 2015 unless we hit the freaking jackpot - which I hear you have to actually play to win, shucks! - and we have about $50,000 debt, give or take, including cars and everything.

I am stoked to announce that in February we paid off $5108!!!  Now it may not seem like a lot but it is a major step in the right direction for us.  With a baby now, money is tighter than ever because of his expenses that we just can't do without.  We were also able to put away money for Caleb in his savings account and put some money in our savings account for a rainy day. :)

We are making steps in the right direction and I couldn't be happier.  Although this will probably be one of our largest debt pay-offs for one month due to the fact that we used our tax return for most of it, it still feels good.  With that debt paid off we are now saving over $200 a month on minimum payments.  Just like the plan was, we paid off our 4 highest interest rate debts and are no longer paying that money for no reason - interest that is.

Our next goal is to work on our last credit card and my car.  All together that is a big chunk - almost $15,000 - but if we can get one of them paid off, that will be saving us another $150-$300 a month.  It's amazing how fast debt can add up, but paying it off is rewarding and exciting.

Here's to another successful month :)

Februarys Are For Budget Planning

Now don't ask me why, but for some reason, February is the month that I get on us about our budget.  It is the first month after all the holidays and birthdays and gives me a real slap in the face about our money situation.

Money is stressful.  I don't care who you are, money is stressful.  I have always been in charge of our finances since we became a "we" and moved in together in 2011.  Ryan, self-admittedly, is not good with money, in the sense that he doesn't realize when he is getting low on it and doesn't stress about it.  I, am self-admittedly, a little obsessed with money, in the sense that I stress over every detail of it and freak out each and every month.

I have tried to come up with a way to help myself out this year so that I don't get so stressed and upset about our money situation.

Going into our marriage we had debt.  Ryan had built up a bit himself and I had a credit card that I would love to use when it wasn't maxed out - don't get scared for me just yet, it only has a $500 limit - which I know is still a lot, but at least it wasn't thousands of dollars.  Anyways, we got married, Ryan went overseas and I was left at home to save money and pay off our debt.  I kicked our budget's ASS and got rid of all of our debt and managed to get us a gorgeous savings account.  We managed to pay for our wedding and honeymoon all in cash and still had some left over.  We did well and lived a great life.

When we bought our house we only had our two vehicle loans to pay each month.  Although I was still stressing about money, we were rolling in the dough - if only it could have stayed that way.

We got excited.  We bought a boat - well we are paying the bank for a boat now.  We bought a new couch - the first piece of brand new furniture either of us ever bought for our home.  We got a credit card.  We had a baby.

Now, we are five and a half months into life as a family of 3 and expenses are not going down, they are just increasing.  February Budgeting has been in full force.

Here are some ways that I manage to stay sane in our goal of becoming debt free - once again.

||SPREADSHEET||
I'm a bit crazy and have created a spreadsheet.  On said excel spreadsheet is a tab for each bill we have.  I have a total of 22 tabs - this sounds like a lot but it includes everything like utilities, mortgage, insurances, etc.  On each tab I have it labeled for the business, the link to the website, username, password, account #, due date, interest %, minimum payment, date paid, amount paid and remaining balance.  Each tab has a whole bunch of numbers on it, but in the end it is our life, in bills, in one spot.  I have an "overview" tab at the beginning that shows our monthly income, all bills with minimum payments totaled, bills in interest % ranking order and miscellaneous items that aren't included in the bills section.  I need this.  This is a great way for me to have everything in one spot and be able to show my hubs what is exactly going on.

||MINT.COM||
I still use Mint.com and I love it!  I have revised our budgets a bit and still work on it weekly.  I love that it uses pie charts and line graphs.  I am a total admin and love all things excel and charts!

||PRIORITIZING||
Like I mentioned above, our spreadsheet has our bills listed in highest to lowest interest rate and this helps me prioritize our bills.  Of course our main bills - mortgage, utilities and groceries - come first, but after those are paid we still have the rest of those pesky ones.  I have made a goal for us to be "debt" free by the end of 2015.  I want to have no debt except for our house and possibly the cars and boat.  I know that still sounds like a lot of debt, but if we only have those 4 payments per month we will be saving an average of $500/month!  That's huge!

||EATING IN||
We love to eat out as much as the next person but living 20 minutes from the closest "chain" restaurant also makes it expensive in gas terms.  We are cutting back on spending money by eating in more.  I have gotten us on a schedule of eating out MAX twice a week, including the weekends.  This is huge for us and I have already noticed a difference.  Of course, there are those nights when you just have to eat out, and I make those okay as long as they don't get out of hand.

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We are going to achieve our goal of becoming debt free by starting at the top of our interest rate list and working our way down.  We will pay minimum payments to all debts except for the highest one and put as much as possible each month towards it.  We will then work our way down and never decrease the amount of money we are paying until all of our debt is gone.

For Example:

Loan A minimum payment is $25.00.  Loan B minimum payment is $25.00.  We will pay $100.00 to Loan A and only pay $25.00 to Loan B until all of Loan A is gone.  Once Loan A is gone, we will then pay $125.00 to Loan B.  We aren't out any more money than we normally are, but now are paying off Loan B a lot faster then if we were just paying the minimum payment.

We are still in Month 1 of this new process and I hope it works.  I plan on doing a budget update in the next couple of months once we see a difference in our debt.

One Income Home...

So when we found out I was pregnant we discussed multiple times how long I would be off of work for.  Ryan and I have never, unfortunately, been that couple that has a ton of nice things and can live on one income.  We have always wondered how people, with what seems like lower paying jobs, can be so well off.

What are we doing wrong?  How can they have that gorgeous house & new vehicles on one income?

Must be nice to be able to go to those concerts all the time, we have a mortgage to pay for.

When will we be able to afford for only one of us to work?

Don't get us confused for jealous or ungrateful people, we live a really nice life and in order to maintain all that we want, we choose for us both to work.

Well the time came where I was going to be off work.  We are so lucky that here in California we can get paid a maximum of $409/week while on disability for pregnancy and baby bonding after birth.  I ended up being off work before Caleb was born for 5 weeks and have been home with him for 10 weeks already.  Although the $409/week is fabulous and we are extremely thankful for it, it isn't the same amount that I would be bringing home if I were working full time.

So to say it has been a struggle for the past 15 weeks is an understatement.  Money is a huge stresser to me.  Money and financial stress is probably the thing that will kill me one day after the build-up of 60+ years of worrying. LOL.  I have gone back and forth, since August 1st when I went out on Maternity leave on when I should go back - 6 weeks PP, 8 weeks PP, 12 weeks PP?

Before I went out on Maternity Leave I made printable calendars for our fridge that mapped out when we would be getting paid and when all of our bills were due.  ::I love to plan things out - especially financially::  Since I've been home I have tried to spread out our bills and payments to when we get paid but relying on the state to send you half of your income is super frustrating.

My state income goes directly to our mortgage which means that we have Ryan's income to pay the rest of our bills with and live off of.  Ryan works in a sales job which is scary - to me, but luckily he is salary plus commission.  We make good money, but with me not working we have built up more debt in the last 15 weeks than I ever thought we would.

Ryan and I have had many "discussions" about our finances and to say that they end with smiles is not the direction I would go.  Like I said above, money is such a stresser for me.  I have taken on the responsibility of paying all of our bills so Ryan doesn't always know our financial situation unless I tell him.

I hit a point last month where I didn't know how we were going to make it another 4 weeks of me not working.  We had a long conversation about what needs to change for the next month and I set a plan in motion.

Ways We Are Not Building Debt In The Next 2 Weeks:

Eating at home - I went through our freezer and we have enough food in there for 12 meals.  I wrote them down and will be making one every night until we are out.

Packing lunches - Ryan drives all day so it is hard for him to eat lunch most days.  I will be finding ways to pack him lunches that he can eat on the road.

Traveling only when necessary - We live 30-40 minutes from our parents and they all want to see Caleb as often as possible.  We plan our trips South strategically and make sure that we utilize our gas accordingly.

No Shopping - We aren't too guilty of this, but I did just go and buy new clothes for work and I always want to buy things for Caleb so this has got to stop, for a while at least.  I plan on not buying any clothes for the next 4 weeks if possible - wish me luck!

Use gift cards - We get gift cards all the time, birthdays, holidays, etc and we always forget to use them!  I have stuck these babies in the diaper bag and will be using them up whenever possible.

I am still using Mint to help keep our budget in line and highly recommend it to anyone, whether you have financial stresses or not.

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I know that I only have 2 weeks left at home with my little and as sad as I am to leave him and go to work, I know that it is for the best.  We want our less stressful life back and a two income home again will be one step in the right direction.

Budget Friendly February

Hello lovelies! 

It has been a while since I last posted.  I was doing so good there for a while and then jumped on the freeway in personal life and am just now making it back - kind of.

I thought I would update everyone on how our month is going.  We are trying really hard to purchase a house and just be more budget conscious.

We have decided that we will each start saving a certain percentage of each paycheck no matter what.  We have a bad habit of pulling more out of savings than we put it.  It kills me a little inside pisses me off every time I see our savings number go down and I decided that we couldn't do it anymore if we wanted to buy a house and have a family.  Ryan and I both compromised on what percentages we will contribute and have made an agreement that we will be saving 20% monthly of Ryan's checks and 20% monthly of my checks.  We are hoping that this will give us a better security blanket and allow us to be more aware of where we are spending our money.

Speaking of being more aware of budget, the Army told us about this great website to use when tracking our money after this last deployment and we absolutely love it!  It is Mint and we use it all the time.  It uploads your bank accounts each time you open it and it tells you exactly how much money you have where.  It also breaks it down into categories for you and shows you where you are spending the most of your money.  It gives you an estimated budget for each category and will send you emails when you are going over or getting low on a bank account.  We have found it very helpful, although it is very honest and makes you really think about what/where you are spending your money.  Go check it out!  It's free and they have apps for you phone or tablet. :)

As you can see we are doing pretty well with the minor hiccup of Movies & DVDs.  We went to one movie and those suckers are expensive now!  

To also help us not spend as much money we have been eating at home more this month.  We have planned that instead of eating out 6-10 meals a week we will only eat maximum 3!  We have changed our eating out days from Friday - Sunday, with the occasional night that we don't want to cook, to just Saturdays.  I know that this is hard for both of us, especially because Ryan gets tired of sandwiches for lunch and loves going out and I do not necessarily cook the best, but we are making it work.

We have come up with some fun dinners and have even tried new stuff, which is always exciting and terrifying at the same time.

I want to start sharing my recipes on here soon and I hope you all enjoy them.  I think that we take the best of both worlds and make something delicious.  I DO NOT hand-make everything we eat and I think that is where some people will be able to relate.  We use everyday items out of our pantry and make it the healthiest and best tasting that we can.  We are in no way, shape or form dietitians and have no real ground to stand on when it comes to what is "healthy" 

Here are some of the recipes that we have eaten most recently that I plan to share very soon :)

Hamburger Pizza - my mom's recipe that she has been making since I was a little girl

His and Hers Calzones

Raviolis with meat sauce

Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo

We are headed out to Colorado this Thursday and are so excited!  Can't wait to spend some time with our fambam.  We have been really good with our budget so we can indulge a little bit while we are there :)

Do you have any fun new recipes we should try?? :)

Weekend Recap and New Goals

Hello All!

I hope that you had a wonderful weekend!  Ryan and I had a very busy one, but fun.

Our weekend started on Friday night.  We made dinner at home - and by make dinner I mean he had a skillet thing and I made a bowl of chili - and then went to see a movie.  We went to see Lone Survivor and it was amazing.  I didn't know how I would do considering that Ryan just got home from Afghanistan and the thought of him going back is always around, but, surprisingly, I did pretty well.  I did not cry - SHOCKER - but was very moved by it.  It was intense and detailed and I recommend it to anyone.  I am so glad it came out after Ryan was home and that I was able to watch it with my own hero.  He was very quiet and still during the movie and I could tell he was captured by it.  An amazing story of how life can be is over there.  Thank you military! :)

Saturday we woke up were awaken by our lovely baby Hank and started our day.  We planned on looking at some houses and continuing this home hunt.  There was something wrong with each of them and it had me defeated (yes, I know, a little bit dramatic) and determined that we were being too picky or there just isn't a house for us.  After multiple conversations we concluded that we aren't being too picky and that the right one is out there.  Ryan thinks that it will come to be in the next week or so and I am truly hoping that he is correct!  We ended our day with dinner with a friend and hit the hay.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!  We were once again awaken by our darling littlest one and started our day much earlier than we had wanted.  We lounged around most of the morning watching back to back episodes of Property Brothers and Diners, Driver Ins and Dives.  Super exciting huh?  We made our way to lunch, Petco for more dog food (it seems that we are there every week!) and then up the hill to a friend's house for the Super Bowl.  We had a good evening there full of football, cocktails, yummy food, horseshoes, fire pits and good company.  We ended the night slightly after the slaughter game was over and went home to go ni-night.

I have to mention the only commercial from the Super Bowl that I loved and in case you missed it, I included it right here :)

Overall, it was a great weekend and I couldn't have been happier.  Any time I get to spend the days with my love and babies is great.

Now onto the goals.  The hubby and I have a few goals for this month.  First, we are going to eat dinner at home every night except for maybe Saturday.  Now, this does not exclude going to the parentals for a free, home-cooked meal, so if you are reading this Mom, we are available any night! :)  Because of this, look out for some recipes and most-likely failed attempts at me cooking.  Second, I would like us to really watch our spending.  We definitely live a good life and we aren't poor, but inevitably I get upset about money every month.  I want us both to be more budget conscious and do better at this.

Wish us luck!!

I hope you all have a great rest of your Monday and have a splendid week :)