Financial Goals Update: June

1. Save 3 months living expenses by December 31. We had a CD come due that we opened late last summer before we bought our home so we used that to pay off debt and put the rest in our emergency fund! At the end of June we have reached 87% of this goal! We hope to have this fully funded by October 1!!

2. Pay $3,000 towards our "small loan". This month we paid the entire "small loan" off!! WE'RE DEBT FREE...minus our home!! It feels wonderful to not be in debt again...hopefully these past 6 months will be the only time in our life that we have any debt except for a mortgage!

3. Make an extra principal payment every month. We haven't been doing this because we have been focusing on getting our debt paid and working on our emergency fund. However, since we refinanced and our payment was lowered we made an extra principal payment for the difference since we were already paying that and we are going to make this payment every month!! Once the emergency fund is fully funded we will begin making even more extra principal payments!

4. Keep all Miscellaneous spending (Medicine, Toiletries, Clothing, Gifts, everything but food) under $100 a month.In June we did a great job keeping our miscellaneous spending in check! We only spent $52.31 this month!

5. Sell $500 worth of stuff from around our home by July 31. We didn't sell anything in June..I seriously doubt that we will reach this goal by July 31 because we still have $248.61 to go to reach the goal but we are going to keep trying!!

Financial Goals Update: May

1. Save 3 months living expenses by December 31. We were able to contribute $70 to this in May & now have 41.5% of our goal!
2. Pay $3,000 towards our "small loan". We have reached this goal but are continuing to pay this down and hope to have the entire loan paid before the end of the year!
3. Make an extra principal payment every month. We have not been doing this, I still have it listed because it is one of my original goals and I want be completely accountable to the goals we set. The reason we are not making extra principal payments is because we have debt and don't have our emergency fund fully funded...once these are in place we will begin making extra principal payments! We did however refinance our mortgage on the 29th and dropped our interest rate almost 1 percent and set up a bi-weekly payment plan which will help to pay the house off faster!!
4. Keep all Miscellaneous spending (Medicine, Toiletries, Clothing, Gifts, everything but food) under $100 a month. Since we have been staying well under $100 we changed the amount to $75! This month we were cutting it close to the $75 and only had $1.83 left at the end of the month! The majority of our expenses were at Lowe's for gardening supplies, potting soil, and compost bucket stuff!
5. Sell $500 worth of stuff from around our home by July 31.We sold $23.61 this month!! The remaining goal is $248.61 which seems unlikely to sell that much by July 31 but we will see!!

Financial Goals Update:March

1. Save 3 months living expenses by December 31. We have added $45 to this...not much but it will help us reach this goal!
2. Pay $3,000 towards our "small loan". We are excited that we have been able to pay off so much in only 3 months! Now we are going to keep paying towards the rest of the loan and it should be completely paid off by the end of the year!!!
3. Make an extra principal payment every month. Since the beginning of the year we have decided to take the Dave Ramsey approach and attack the smallest debt first. With focusing solely on our "small loan" we hope to have it entirely paid off this year and will then focus on principal payments!
4. Keep all Miscellaneous spending (Medicine, Toiletries, Clothing, Gifts, everything but food) under $100 a month. We once again stayed under the $100 mark!!
5. Sell $500 worth of stuff from around our home by July 31. We sold one item for $4 (every little bit counts!) and listed several on Craigslist which we have had a few hits on so hopefully we will get rid of some more & make some more money!!

Financial Goals Update:February

We have made some progress towards our goals this month! Here is the update for the month of February:

1. Save 3 months living expenses by December 31. We added $80 to the emergency fund this month (not much but something)!!
2. Pay $3,000 towards our "small loan". As of February we have paid off over $2,750!!
3. Make an extra principal payment every month. Since the beginning of the year we have decided to take the Dave Ramsey approach and attack the smallest debt first. With focusing solely on our "small loan" we hope to have it entirely paid off this year and will then focus on principal payments!
4. Keep all Miscellaneous spending (Medicine, Toiletries, Clothing, Gifts, everything but food) under $100 a month. We have spent under $60 on miscellaneous!
5. Sell $500 worth of stuff from around our home by July 31. We sold a guitar, amp & 2 books this month giving us an extra $110 for debt!!

We hope to stay focused on reaching these goals and hopefully the update for March will be just as good!

Financial Goals: January Update

We have made some progress towards our goals this month! Here is the update for the month of January!!

1. Save 3 months living expenses by December 31. We added a small amount this month towards our emergency fund.
2. Pay $3,000 towards our "small loan". We have paid off almost $2,000 already!!
3. Make an extra principal payment every month. We have decided to take the Dave Ramsey approach and attack the smallest debt first. With focusing solely on our "small loan" we hope to have it entirely paid off this year and will then focus on principal payments!
4. Keep all Miscellaneous spending (Medicine, Toiletries, Clothing, Gifts, Everything but food) under $100 a month. We only spent $20 on miscellaneous spending this month! (Staying out of the stores really helps!!)
5. Sell $500 worth of stuff from around our home by July 31 We didn't sell anything this month but have several items listed on Craigslist.