With the end of the month already here, it's time for our family to review our financial goals & our recent progress. And thankfully, we have good news...we finished paying off our van this week!
My husband & I have been trimming our budget & putting every available dollar toward paying off our car...and it is so nice to know that our hard work has paid off & we no longer have a car payment! In my opinion, freedom within your budget is truly the key to a peaceful mind & heart!
In the past, I've posted about how transitioning to an all cash budget, always breaking our bills & saving our change is an easy way for us to build savings. We have been on an all cash budget for about 2 & a half years (thanks to Dave Ramsey's 'Total Money Makeover') & we have never felt more in control of our finances than when we do now.
Within that time, we have met many of our financial goals:
- Saved up an $1100 emergency fund (We have had to replace this emergecy fund multiple times after emergencys have occured)
- Paid off $36,000 worth of student loan & credit card debt
- Paid off $3000 worth of medical bills
- Purchased a cheap used car for my husband for $2000 (lovingly known as a "beater"-which he happened to total after only 8 months!!)
- Paid cash for 3 Disney vacations
- I left the work force to be a stay at home mom
- Paid cash for our daughter's nursery furniture & baby necessities
- Richly blessed our family & friends with gifts for birthdays & holidays
- Paid off our minivan!!
Even after all of the goals we have met, we still have plenty of things we would like to do, financially speaking. There is always something to improve upon!
- Replace the $395 we had to spend out of our $1100 Emergency Fund-
- Pay off our minivan -
- Open a college fund for our daughter-
- We opened a 529 savings account for Piper's college fund & will continue to add to this fund once we have a fully funded Emergency Fund & the appropriate amount of retirement savings being put in each month.
- Please Note: We understand that it does not follow the exact teachings of Dave Ramsey to concentrate on more than one goal at a time. But, since we mainly save for our daughter through simply saving our change, as well as the fact that she is already over 1 year old, we decided to begin saving for her college now.
- Fund a 3 Month Emergency Fund
- We feel we can fund a 3 month emergency fund (3 months worth of our necessary expenses) by February. If for some reason we fall short, we will use our tax refund to finish funding our Emergecy Fund.
- Please note we are saving 3 months worth of necessary expenses, not 3-6 months of our salary....If something happened such as a lay off, illness, etc, we would trim your budget as much as possible & only pay for necessities-the things we need to survive.
I hope that in some small way these posts can encourage you. In the future, I will be posting specific details about how we have met the financial goals I listed above, details about each of Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps, how they have applied to our life & simple steps you can take to get started on your financial makeover!
**You can find more personal finance posts HERE**
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