March - Goals Update

My husband and I made some goals for 2014. We are going to do our best to attain these goals. Each month, I will update this blog on how we are doing on our progress!

1. Continue to build our 72 Survival Kit - started, need to complete
2. Floor the attic - need the storage! -- If not the attic, we need to take advantage of our extra deep garage
3. Update the kitchen appliances we have - dishwasher, stove, microwave --Saving up to replace the stove & microwave
4. Put extra money toward paying off our house (Dave Ramsey's Baby Step #6) -- Putting an extra $250 a month toward the principal on our mortgage and any "extra" money we have at the end of the month
5. Be intentional about finding place/people to give to -- This is also part of my Lenten goal
6. Continue to save for a vacation ($719.07 saved as of March 1, 2014)
7. Continue to save for a "new" vehicle ($6,445.97 saved as of March 1, 2014) -- Had to use some funds to fix our car from the accident
8. Bret to buy a sidearm, a holster, and an AR (maybe!) - using overtime money to pay for this -- Bret has worked 8 hours of overtime this week alone, so hope to make a purchase soon
9. Take a short trip together somewhere - may be difficult with Bret's new LEO schedule -- We have many weddings this year so we might have to tack on a vacation with wedding destinations

Goals Update: December

My husband and I took time to make goals for ourselves for 2013. We tried to be specific and will hold ourselves to these goals. After three months, we have begun 11 out of the 13 goals, with 5 fully accomplished!

1. Plan a vacation for just the two of us. Save to pay for it up front! - no plans made yet, but savings are building
2. Pay off 100% of student loans!
3. Save and buy a "new" vehicle - $5,785.40 saved as of December 1, 2013
4. Save 100% of emergency fund!
5. Get basement and garage ORGANIZED!
6. Floor the attic (more storage) - still haven't thought about this at all, too far down on the list to do anything -- thinking this might not be accomplished this year...
7. Bret to purchase the firearm of his choice
8. Organize a Legacy Drawer  - About 90% completed! Still need to write legacy letters & think of funeral plan
9. Make wills for each of us
10. Build a 72-Hour emergency kit (here and here) --> haven't even started this, slackers! I'd like to start this before school starts in August
11. Be intentional about finding opportunities to give to others --> I have tried to find opportunities for random acts of kindness
12. Plan our meals by the week - so far, so good! We do this on Sunday night for the following week
13. Keep communication open and loving between us --> We have been trying to pray together at least once a day

Goals Update: November

My husband and I took time to make goals for ourselves for 2013. We tried to be specific and will hold ourselves to these goals. After three months, we have begun 11 out of the 13 goals, with 5 fully accomplished!

1. Plan a vacation for just the two of us. Save to pay for it up front! - no plans made yet, but savings are building
2. Pay off 100% of student loans!
3. Save and buy a "new" vehicle - $3,784.50 saved as of June 30, 2013
4. Save 100% of emergency fund!
5. Get basement and garage ORGANIZED!
6. Floor the attic (more storage) - still haven't thought about this at all, too far down on the list to do anything -- thinking this might not be accomplished this year...
7. Bret to purchase the firearm of his choice
8. Organize a Legacy Drawer  - About 90% completed! Still need to write legacy letters & think of funeral plan
9. Make wills for each of us
10. Build a 72-Hour emergency kit (here and here) --> haven't even started this, slackers! I'd like to start this before school starts in August
11. Be intentional about finding opportunities to give to others --> I have tried to find opportunities for random acts of kindness
12. Plan our meals by the week - so far, so good! We do this on Sunday night for the following week
13. Keep communication open and loving between us --> We have been trying to pray together at least once a day

Goals Update: October

My husband and I took time to make goals for ourselves for 2013. We tried to be specific and will hold ourselves to these goals. After three months, we have begun 11 out of the 13 goals, with 5 fully accomplished!

1. Plan a vacation for just the two of us. Save to pay for it up front! --> We have a little under $600 saved for this. No plans for vacation time off from work yet, but whenever/wherever we go, it's going to be great!
2. Pay off 100% of student loans!
3. Save and buy a "new" vehicle - $5,085.40 saved as of October 1, 2013
4. Save 100% of emergency fund!
5. Get basement and garage ORGANIZED!
6. Floor the attic (more storage) - still haven't thought about this at all, too far down on the list to do anything -- thinking this might not be accomplished this year...
7. Bret to purchase the firearm of his choice
8. Organize a Legacy Drawer  - About 90% completed! Still need to write legacy letters & think of funeral plan
9. Make wills for each of us
10. Build a 72-Hour emergency kit (here and here) --> We are adding items a little bit at a time. Every time we go shopping, we try to pick up something so to add to our kits.
11. Be intentional about finding opportunities to give to others
12. Plan our meals by the week - We do this on Sunday night for the following week
    Loving that fall is here and it's soup/stew/chili season 100 Days of NO Processed Meals
13. Keep communication open and loving between us --> We have been trying to pray together at least once a day

Goals Update: September

My husband and I took time to make goals for ourselves for 2013. We tried to be specific and will hold ourselves to these goals. After three months, we have begun 11 out of the 13 goals, with 5 fully accomplished!

1. Plan a vacation for just the two of us. Save to pay for it up front! - Savings are building; but with husband's new job, there won't be any time off soon
2. Pay off 100% of student loans!
3. Save and buy a "new" vehicle - $4,284.50 saved as of August 30, 2013
4. Save 100% of emergency fund!
5. Get basement and garage ORGANIZED!
6. Floor the attic (more storage) - still haven't thought about this at all, too far down on the list to do anything -- thinking this might not be accomplished this year...
7. Bret to purchase the firearm of his choice
8. Organize a Legacy Drawer  - About 90% completed! Still need to write legacy letters & think of funeral plan
9. Make wills for each of us
10. Build a 72-Hour emergency kit (here and here) --> We have a few items in our emergency packs now :)
11. Be intentional about finding opportunities to give to others --> I have tried to find opportunities for random acts of kindness
12. Plan our meals by the week - so far, so good! We do this on Sunday night for the following week
13. Keep communication open and loving between us --> We have been trying to pray together at least once a day

Goals Update: August

My husband and I took time to make goals for ourselves for 2013. We tried to be specific and will hold ourselves to these goals. After three months, we have begun 11 out of the 13 goals, with 5 fully accomplished!

1. Plan a vacation for just the two of us - With my husband starting a new job, we won't be taking a vacation any time soon. But we are keeping up our saving so that when we have vacation time, we will be able to go somewhere great!!
2. Pay off 100% of student loans!
3. Save and buy a "new" vehicle - $4,034.87 saved as of August 1, 2013
4. Save 100% of emergency fund!
5. Get basement and garage ORGANIZED!
6. Floor the attic (more storage) - still haven't thought about this at all, too far down on the list to do anything -- thinking this might not be accomplished this year...
7. Bret to purchase the firearm of his choice
8. Organize a Legacy Drawer  - About 90% completed! Still need to write legacy letters & think of funeral plan
9. Make wills for each of us
10. Build a 72-Hour emergency kit (here and here) --> We have a few items in our emergency kit, working on it slowly by surely
11. Be intentional about finding opportunities to give to others --> I have tried to find opportunities for random acts of kindness
12. Plan our meals by the week - so far, so good! We do this on Sunday night for the following week
13. Keep communication open and loving between us --> We have been trying to pray together at least once a day. Especially with the school year starting up again, we discuss our days with one another in the evening. We are going eat more dinners at the dinner table than on the couch. Usually we are good about this, but got a little lazy over the summer.

Goals Update: July

My husband and I took time to make goals for ourselves for 2013. We tried to be specific and will hold ourselves to these goals. After three months, we have begun 11 out of the 13 goals, with 5 fully accomplished!

1. Plan a vacation for just the two of us. Save to pay for it up front! - no plans made yet, but savings are building
2. Pay off 100% of student loans!
3. Save and buy a "new" vehicle - $3,784.50 saved as of June 30, 2013
4. Save 100% of emergency fund!
5. Get basement and garage ORGANIZED!
6. Floor the attic (more storage) - still haven't thought about this at all, too far down on the list to do anything -- thinking this might not be accomplished this year...
7. Bret to purchase the firearm of his choice
8. Organize a Legacy Drawer  - About 90% completed! Still need to write legacy letters & think of funeral plan
9. Make wills for each of us
10. Build a 72-Hour emergency kit (here and here) --> haven't even started this, slackers! I'd like to start this before school starts in August
11. Be intentional about finding opportunities to give to others --> I have tried to find opportunities for random acts of kindness
12. Plan our meals by the week - so far, so good! We do this on Sunday night for the following week
13. Keep communication open and loving between us --> We have been trying to pray together at least once a day

Dave Ramsey - Inspired!

Now that I'm on summer break, I try to listen to Dave Ramsey each morning. He's on in KC from 9-11am on AM710. The advice he gives and the stories people tell (the good and the bad) are so inspiring to me. I get all motivated to move along the baby steps! If you aren't familiar, here they are

My husband and I are currently on baby steps 4 & 6. Baby steps 4, 5, & 6 are done simultaneously and because we don't have kids, we are just on 4 & 6. When we started off, we didn't have a terrible amount of debt and we were first married. The biggest thing was paying off the student loan debt we had from college. Once we got that finished, we piled up money to have our 6-month emergency fund completed. That was such a huge accomplishment for us, as I am a teacher and my husband works at an early education center (read = we don't make a ton of money).

We are putting any "extra" money we have toward our home mortgage. Whether that is $15 or $80, every little bit means that we will own our house outright sooner and we won't be paying any more interest to the bank than we need to. To tell the truth, I can't wait for Baby Step 7, to be able to bless others with our wealth, but it will be a while!

Goals Update: June

My husband and I took time to make goals for ourselves for 2013. We tried to be specific and will hold ourselves to these goals. After three months, we have begun 11 out of the 13 goals, with 4 fully accomplished!

1. Plan a vacation for just the two of us. Save to pay for it up front! - no plans made yet, savings are building - We are visiting my sister & her family the first weekend of June and I am surprising my husband with a day at Disneyland!!
2. Pay off 100% of student loans!
3. Save and buy a "new" vehicle - $3,284.50 saved as of May 31, 2013
4. Save 100% of emergency fund - 98.3% as of May 31, 2013--> put together two saving accounts; plan to be done in June!
5. Get basement and garage ORGANIZED!
6. Floor the attic (more storage) - still haven't thought about this at all, too far down on the list to do anything
7. Bret to purchase the firearm of his choice
8. Organize a Legacy Drawer  - About 90% completed! Need to write legacy letters & think of funeral plans --> sad to think about, probably why we are putting it off!
9. Make wills for each of us
10. Build a 72-Hour emergency kit (here and here) --> haven't even started this, slackers! We were at Bass Pro this week and saw some survival supplies we need to get
11. Be intentional about finding opportunities to give to others --> I have tried to find opportunities for random acts of kindness
12. Plan our meals by the week - so far, so good! We do this on Sunday night for the following week
13. Keep communication open and loving between us --> We have been trying to pray together at least once a day

Goals Update: May

My husband and I took time to make goals for ourselves for 2013. We tried to be specific and will hold ourselves to these goals. After three months, we have begun 11 out of the 13 goals, with 4 fully accomplished!

1. Plan a vacation for just the two of us. Save to pay for it up front! - no plans made yet, savings are building 
2. Pay off 100% of student loans!
3. Save and buy a "new" vehicle - $3,284.50 saved as of May 1, 2013
4. Save 100% of emergency fund - 96.3% as of May 1, 2013--> put together two saving accounts to get to our goal faster
5. Get basement and garage ORGANIZED! - May garage sale was successful and none of our stuff came back into our house (yay!)
6. Floor the attic (more storage) - still haven't thought about this at all, too cold to get up there and do anything
7. Bret to purchase the firearm of his choice
8. Organize a Legacy Drawer  - About 90% completed! Need to write legacy letters & think of funeral plans --> sad to think about, probably why we are putting it off!
9. Make wills for each of us
10. Build a 72-Hour emergency kit (here and here) --> haven't even started this, slackers!
11. Be intentional about finding opportunities to give to others --> I have tried to find opportunities for random acts of kindness
12. Plan our meals by the week - so far, so good! We do this on Sunday night for the following week
13. Keep communication open and loving between us --> We have been trying to pray together at least once a day

Officially DEBT FREE

Although we have been living in limbo between Dave Ramsey's Baby Step 2 and 3 for a while now, we are now officially passed Baby Step 2! That means we are DEBT FREE except for our house. It feels awesome to know that we don't owe anyone any money and we can focus on moving upward and onward with our financial and life goals!

  

We are already a bit over halfway on Baby Step 3: three to six months savings. This is an emergency fund for emergencies only! If a job is lost or a car suddenly quits, not for a fun vacation or Christmas. Those things can be saved for.  Hopefully, we won't ever have to touch out 3-6mo fund, but knowing its there is very comforting.

Bring on the savings and climbing to Baby Step 4: Saving 15% of income toward retirement!

I {heart} Dave Ramsey!

Goals Update: April

My husband and I took time to make goals for ourselves for 2013. We tried to be specific and will hold ourselves to these goals. After three months, we have begun 10 out of the 13 goals, with 3 fully accomplished!

1. Plan a vacation for just the two of us. Save to pay for it up front! - no plans made yet, savings are building 
2. Pay off 100% of student loans!
3. Save and buy a "new" vehicle - $1,804.21 saved as of March 19, 2013 --> this was said shuffling from Goal #2
4. Save 70% of emergency fund - 43.9% as of March 30, 2013
5. Get basement and garage ORGANIZED! - garage still organized, basement is being worked on (waiting on that city wide garage sale in May to clean it out!!)
6. Floor the attic (more storage) - still haven't thought about this at all, too cold to get up there and do anything
7. Bret to purchase the firearm of his choice
8. Organize a Legacy Drawer  - About 90% completed! Need to write legacy letters & think of funeral plans --> sad to think about, probably why we are putting it off!
9. Make wills for each of us
10. Build a 72-Hour emergency kit (here and here)
11. Be intentional about finding opportunities to give to others --> I have tried to find opportunities for random acts of kindness
12. Plan our meals by the week - so far, so good! We do this on Sunday night for the following week
13. Keep communication open and loving between us
1.  Books to read: Unglued  
2. We have been trying to pray together at least once a day

Just a little closer to being Debt Free

Our latest payment to our student loan debt went through yesterday afternoon. We are now sitting pretty at 85.9% paid off! I am so excited to be done with this debt. It is our last debt on Dave Ramsey's Baby Step 2. Then we can move on to building up our emergency fund.

I'm a visual learner

 Next payment is due April 2017, should we just wait til then?! ;)

Goals Update: March

My husband and I took time to make goals for ourselves for 2013. We tried to be specific and will hold ourselves to these goals. After two months, we have begun 9 out of the 13 goals. Two have even been accomplished!

1. Plan a vacation for just the two of us. Save to pay for it up front! - no plans made yet, bust savings are building 
2. *Goal change* Pay off at least 75% 100% of student loans! - 74.5% as of February 20, 2013 --> our tax refund and some shuffling around of accounts and we ought to have this loan paid off by the end of April!!
3. Save and buy a "new" vehicle - $3,084.21 saved as of February 20, 2013
4. Save 70% of emergency fund - 50.6% as of February 20, 2013
5. Get basement and garage ORGANIZED! - garage still organized, basement is being worked on
6. Floor the attic (more storage) - still haven't thought about this at all, too cold to get up there and do anything
7. Bret to purchase the firearm of his choice
8. Organize a Legacy Drawer  - starting on it during my two snow days in February - gotta collect all the information and documents - but about 80% completed!
9. Make wills for each of us - because my husband and I do not have kids, we simply wrote out our wishes if we were to pass away and will have them notarized 
10. Build a 72-Hour emergency kit (here and here)
11. Be intentional about finding opportunities to give to others
1. I have tried to find opportunities for random acts of kindness
2. I have just read 7 by Jen Hatmaker and it is an amazing book, very inspiring!
12. Plan our meals by the week - so far, so good! We do this on Sunday night for the following week
13. Keep communication open and loving between us
1.  Books to read: The Husband Project and Unglued  
2. We have been trying to pray together at least once a day

Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps

My husband and I went thought Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University in January-April 2011. It literally changed our lives. We have known each other since we were 16, when we met in high school and were married in March 2010 (coming up on three years!). We were raised very differently financially and this became apparent when we combined our finances. Going through FPU changed all that! We got focused and have been on the same page ever since!

(source)

We are currently on Baby Step 2~3. We have kept three months of savings because my husband is applying for a new job. But we are also attacking our last debt, besides the house. When we started, we had a car payment, three credit cards, and student loan debt. This seemed like a lot to us, but I know that others are much further in the debt hole than we are. We have paid down the student loan debt and are able to make another big payment on it. We have changed our goal from paying off 70% of the loan by December to having it completely paid off by the end of the year. I hope we can stay on this pace!!

43.4%!!

Our big payment to the student loan went through and now we are up from 28.9% to 43.4%! I am beyond excited at this jump in paid-off-ness!! We are on our way to our goal!

Finding Money Around the House

As we are working toward to goals for 2013, Bret and I are trying to find ways to get more income for our budget. Enter, the Swap Shop! The smallish town we live in, there is a Swap Shop that is basically a mini-Craigslist on Facebook. Participants post items/prices they would like to sell and people comment/message when they are interested in purchasing.

So, hunting around the house we went!! We found some things we don't (and sometimes never!) use to post. And then people have paid us for those items. We have made about $40 doing this! I am excited about this and it just makes me want to search for more things to sell!

We have decided to save for our goals with half of that money and use the other half for fun stuff. I'm looking forward to making this income work for us. Now, I've gotta go find more things to sell ;)

Cleaning House

We are working on cleaning all the accumulation in our house. We are coming up on three years in our first home and there is just so much STUFF everywhere. This weekend, we went around the house to gathered things we don't use or don't need. There was a lot of "Well, maybe we'll use it someday..." and "If only...". But we had to stay strong and just clear things out. Now we are just preparing for our garage sale. Is winter over yet?!

Found these on pinterest and LOVED the quotes!

 

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Goals for 2013

My husband and I took time to make goals for ourselves for 2013. We tried to be specific and will hold ourselves to these goals. I will try to come back to them each month or so to reflect on them.

1. Plan a vacation for just the two of us. Save to pay for it up front!
2. Pay off at least 75% of student loans! - 28.9% as of December 2012
3. Save and buy a "new" vehicle - $2,000 saved as of December 2012
4. Save 70% of emergency fund - 54% as of December 2012
5. Get basement and garage ORGANIZED!
6. Floor the attic (more storage)
7. Bret to purchase the firearm of his choice - taking conceal & carry in January 2013
8. Organize a Legacy Drawer
9. Make wills for each of us
10. Build a 72-Hour emergency kit (here and here)
11. Be intentional about finding opportunities to give to others
12. Plan our meals by the week
13. Keep communication open and loving between us