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My dh and I are taking the Financial Peace University class through our church. It is going so well. It is giving us the tools to work together toward our goal of becoming debt-free. Sometime in March, we made our first budget. Because of all of our bills, we learned that with only our teaching jobs, we could not pay the minimums on everything. That was a relief, because I had been working so hard to make that happen. So, the first budget justified the need to have our part-time jobs. We started using the envelope system then, too. I was always worried to have cash around, because my dh and I would both spend cash so easily. But it really started working for us right away.
At the end of March, we sat down and made the budget for April. We determined what bills are going to be paid with each paycheck, and how much we will pay each one. We have a zero-balance budget, which means that all of our money has a "job" before we even earn it. This also helps us look ahead, to see what extra things we will be paying for during the upcoming month, and we budget for it.
We are working on delayed gratification. Thanks to my mom, who bought me a ton of rubber ducky bathroom stuff as an early birthday present, my dh re-did our second bathroom. It is so cute. Anyway, we need a new light fixture and medicine cabinet. Dh asked if we could take some money from another fund and get those two things, so that the job would be finished. I stuck to my guns and said no. We could begin to save up money for those items, but that we are going to work on delayed gratification and only buying something if we have the money in that particular envelope. That is not easy for either of us, but we are trying!
Last week in our FPU class, we learned about the Debt Snowball. This weekend, I sat down and filled out the form that goes with that. This lets us know approximately when we will be debt-free. It's not exact, because interest isn't calculated into it. BUT, we will also be putting more money toward our debt than I wrote down. Anyway, according to this form, we should be debt-free in three years!!! Now, that may seem like a LONG time to a lot of you, but I am thrilled. My dh was just inches away from bankruptcy, and things were looking very bad financially. We can definitely survive 3 years!
I cannot even tell you how excited we were to hear that we'll be debt-free in that amount of time. I have gone from screaming, crying, cussing, and fighting about money to really working hard with my dh to make smart choices. We are not thrilled that we are working at McDonalds, but we know that if we do this now, we won't ever have to do it again. We do not want to be senior citizens, working minimum wage jobs. We want to plan for our future and make smart choices. I am proud of my dh, too, who has gone from sneaking around, hiding bills, avoiding money issues, and lying about money to doing whatever it takes to make things better for us.
We have decided that we are going to celebrate when we become debt-free. It will be around our 4th anniversary, and we are going to take a vacation to Disney World - and maybe other Florida attractions like Sea World and Universal Studios. We went to DW for our honeymoon, and it would be great to go back. It would be great to know that we accomplished this big goal TOGETHER, and celebrate the fact that we are debt-free. Oh, I can't wait!
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Good for you!!! It seem so hard and you guys are working so hard, you deserve all the best!
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WooHoo! Good for you! It's a great feeling to find a plan that works and see results when you stick to it. It's going to be tough sometimes especially when you want to treat yourself with something but 3 yrs really isn't that long .
Good Luck!
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I am so proud of you guys! I hope those 3 years will come by quicker than usual so you don't have to worry anymore! BTW- did you figure in the summer school job in as well for paying down your debt or was it just one of those monthly projections?
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Good for you!! Sounds like you're well on your way!!
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Rachel, Good for you I am so impressed! You should start the change Jar challenge for Disney, it might be neat to see how much you can save before you go! Good luck to you and dh!
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I am so very HAPPY for you and DH. It's great that you are working together and it must be much easier to have both of you on the same page. Keep it up!
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You are an inspiration to the women on this board! I am so proud of you!!!!!!!!
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WTG! We also did Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University through our church and it is a wonderful system. Congrats and keep it up!
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I am so excited for you and your DH! You have a plan and it will all just fall into place! You go, girl!