I’ve updated our January update to our final numbers!

I told you we would start the month off right! We have some exciting NEWS!! We broke the 20,000 MARK!!!

Who we Owe: Total to Start: Remaining balance: Month we paid it off:
PAIDOFFKohls(235.26) $0 (March 2010)
PAIDOFFMy CC($275.70) $0 (April 2010)
PAIDOFFCouch($1472.18) $0 (October 2010)
PAIDOFFCredit Card($4577.81) $0 (October 2010)
Hospital($2000) $1980
PAIDOFFStudent Loan #1a($2625) $0 (November 2010)
–Student Loan #2a($2625) $2593.28
((-Student Loan #1b($4000) $ 2485.37 $1077.37))
–Student Loan #2b($4500) $4442.57
–Student Loan #2c($4523.89) $4502.97
–Student Loan #3($5522.40) $5199.28

TOTAL DEBT: $32,357.24
REMAINING DEBT: $19,795.47   <— Do you see that! There is no ‘2’ at the beginning!!! Ahhhhh I’m so excited!!

**If you noticed I changed the student loan names… It’s kind of confusing but they are broken down into separate loans within 3 loans. We are ‘skipping’ student loan 2a because we are just getting rid of the 1st loan all together. I’m really excited to get to student loan 2a/2b/2c because the interest on them is higher than the one we’ve been doing. **

Here’s how God has blessed us this month!

$271 snowball (I refer to this a lot so if you aren’t sure what I’m talking about click here.)
$100 used to go to savings but we stopped it since we are just above our emergency fund & we are squeezing money from everywhere we can.
$26 that I found in my purse! (I haven’t used it in like 3 years, go me 3 years ago!)
$20 that I found in my checkbook
$25 from Jareds step dads dad from Christmas. Thanks, Jim!
$30 from my step dads dad from Christmas. Thanks, Doc!
Sold a t.v. for $50
$151 from other Christmas money
I sold a picture frame for $5
$70 misc
We counted up our change again and had accumulated $40
I haven’t touched my bonus from work because I was making sure that we wouldn’t need it for bills n such. Since Jared is good for January we are using $500 of my bonus to go towards debt this month!!
And last but certainly not least, Jared’s dad text him last night & said that we didn’t have to pay for January’s cell phone bill because we had somehow been paying a little too much. $120 going towards debt! (And another bonus, every month after January it’s $20 less so more to add to the debt snowball-W00T!!) I totally felt like I was playing monopoly or the game of LIFE and I got an awesome card. LOL.
If you were counting along, that adds up to $1137, not including our debt snowball so $1408 going towards one student loan!

HOW ARE YOU DOING???

Think about your future & how beneficial it is to be financially secure. Some of the changes you will have to implement are tough right now, but it WILL be worth it! And remember, it’s not just the destination, it’s the journey along the way. So embrace the changes, invite others to join you & see where God leads you. 🙂

Are you not sure of some of the changes you need to make? Maybe downsize house or car or things in general? That can be kind of scary, but you can do it! Some of the things we are doing are:

-1 vehicle (this is pretty tough for some people. Since Jared works from home he is able to drop me off at the bus stop and pick me up from the bus stop at night. The bus is definitely not as convenient for me. I have to get up an extra hour earlier  and it’s an extra 30 minutes of riding around, but it’s needed for now.) (If I ever miss the bus I have 2 awesome neighbors that let me ride in with them)
-No cable, and only 1 t.v. (we are selling our 2nd t.v. this month!)
-No credit cards- can’t spend money you don’t have
-Switching to the envelope system. This is, I think, what has REALLY pulled everything together. If you are considering envelopes, go with Nike on this one, JUST DO IT. It’s been around way longer than Dave Ramsey so something must be working right.
We don’t have any other ‘extras’ either. No magazine subscriptions, no little gym for Jaidan or anything else. It’s not ‘bad’ to have any extras but if you want to pay off your debt then be looking for areas in your budget to temporarily cut or make sure it’s added in to your envelope system.

If you are serious about getting out of debt/becoming financially secure, I recommend Dave Ramsey’s: Total Money Makeover.