Breaking out of your old habits is always rough, no matter what you're doing. When people step out of their comfort zone, they tend to get, well..uncomfortable. I've always been a spender - I guess I just wasn't born with the saver gene. It's time to change that.
As most of you know, we have been budgeting since January. I've been updating the budget every paycheck because things change. Dave's first step was to get $1,000 in the bank for an emergency fund. An emergency is . . . a blown out tire, a sick animal, etc. NOT a couch that is on sale for one weekend only.
After shuffling the budget around this week (and taking away some "fun" money) we were able to get up to $800. We should have that $1,000 by next paycheck...easy. We still have "blow" money and covered all of our bills this month. Makes me wonder where all of that money went during the last 6 months...
Baby Step Two is paying off all debt (except the mortgage). This is a scary one for me, considering I have $100,000+ of non-mortgage debt on my shoulders. Deep breaths...we can get through this, right?
I'm so proud of you for getting Baby Step 1 nearly completed so quickly!! Don't worry about the amount of debt you have, once you take the Dumping Debt Lesson you will feel encouraged, and once you start your snowball you will feel empowered! YOU CAN DO THIS!!! Financial freedom IS WORTH IT! :)
ReplyDeleteWe are really excited! I already feel 100% better about our finances, and we're only 3 weeks in! I think with our student loans (depending on what Dave says), I may break them up into each individual loans instead of looking at the one huge consolidated loan. Baby steps and it will get done a lot easier (and with a lot less stress). Luckily, I'm in deferment until my Master's is up ... so another year or two maybe. It will feel great to knock out all of our other, smaller, debt and then kill those private student loans!
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