Emergency Fund Goal

We have finnally decided on an emergency fund goal. We took our budget and stripped it down. We took out saving for vacation, new furniture, Gifts (christmas & birthdays), eating out, & home improvement. We came up with around $3300 a month in expenses. We didn't lower saving for Automobile service (fixing the car), pet care, & medical expenses, house insurance, property taxes & gasoline usage. This would still give us flexiblity in our budget.

We looked at what emergencies we might have that we could our incomes and how long they might effect us. We looked at our parents, and their health, their finacial situations. We looked at our jobs and their stablity. We tried to look at any situation that we might use our income and savings, or might cause one of us to take a leave of absence from our job.

We ended up taking the $3300 and multiplied it times 3 months, then rounded it up to $10,000. So we should be okay for 3 months with no income and good for close to 6 months on one persons income. So $10,000 is our goal.

Loosening up the budget.

Now that we are finished with step 2 in the Dave Ramsey plan, we going to loosen up a few dollars in our budget. First we are going to up our blow money by $80 a piece. That gives me and my wife $200 a piece each month. This month we are going to budget in some extra money for clothes. We also got out some extra money for eating out (still using envelope system), we'll see next month if want to leave it higher or not.

We are not making major changes, just a few hundred dollars this month. We'll still have enough to save toward full size emergency fund. We have had a couple discussions on how large an emergency fund we should have. We'll decide soon.

As for now it feels good to be debt free.

We're Debt Free!!!

Friday the 13th wasn't so bad after all.

Today my wife went to the bank today, to pay off our last debt. We have now paid off all our debt except our house. We paid off 49,705.46 in 28 months and 13 days.

It feels so good to finnally reach this goal. But it is isn't over yet, it will never be over, it is now a part of our everyday life. We will still use the envelope system and make a monthly budget. This way of life has helped me and wife communicate so well, our relationship is awesome!

Now it is time for baby step 3, building our full sized emergency fund.

We're Debt Free!!!

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

March is over and we are one step closer to being finished with baby step 2. We were able to pay and extra $2000 on out debt in March.

Comparing last years March to this years. We had lower utilities, telephone, and Satalite bills. We also spent about the same about on Automoble fuel. The car we just purchased, gets better mileage and the whole family fits in. So we use it instead out our gas guzzleing SUV. We have seen about $200 a month in savings the last couple months. The last time our monthly budget for Gasoline was so low was a year ago. The increased prices for gasoline was hurting our budget over the last few months, but the new car's fuel efficency has helped offset the fuel price increase.

We are hoping to be debt free soon. Our next paychecks should be our best yet this year. And we are also expecting an annual bonus. Together these should be enough to pay off our last debt!

Back on baby step 2

February is over and we have put the $550.85 we used out of our emergency fund back in, and we paid an extra $1000 on our debt this month also. We also started saving again for future expenses. We had to up our monthly savings for Property taxes and House insurance to make up for the months we missed. We ended up with 3 months we didn't pay extra on debt to save for a car. I feels good to get back to paying down our last debt.

I was hoping to have done our debt free scream by now, but the car breaking down slowed our progress. The next couple months should be good months for us. I am starting to work 20 hours of overtime a week for the next 4 weeks. I am hoping we will have some large payments toward our debt. If all goes well, we'll be screaming "I'm Debt free" in 2 to 3 more months.

Bought a car with cash.

On January 21, 2012, for the first time, we bought a car with cash. We didn't take out a loan, or get a lease, although the dealer tried hard to get us to borrow just a couple thousands so we didn't spend all our money. We shot him down immediately. We told him, it is just our lifestyle not to have debt, and we wouldn't even consider it.

We have been saving since November, and have been looking at cars almost every weekend since then. We did have to use our emergency fund, so our next task it to build back up our $1000 emergency fund.

2 years on the Total Money Makeover.

Well yesterday marked 2 years we have been following Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover" plan. We have paid off 42,037.31 in consumer debt. That is not counting money we have been paying on our mortgage this whole time. I have been using Quicken track my spending for each transaction we make. And I have a spreadsheet which I keep our monthly budget on. These tools have helped me see the fruits of our labors. I have watched out debt go down and our net worth go up.

When we started we were not savers, but now we save for everything it seems. Right now we are saving for a vehicle since my car has died and is going to the junkyard probably. We still in emergency mode. Not paying extra on debt, and saving all our extra money. We were hoping do be done with baby step 2 by now, but we haven't paid off the debt as quickly as I would have hoped. Hopefully we will get a car this month and be back on the debt snowball.

We only have 7668.15 left to pay on consumer debt, then we will start saving our big emergency fund. Wish us luck, cause I want to scream "We're debt free!!!"