March 2014 Budgeting and Debt Update

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(*As I am typing this, I am aware that this is personal. That people get squimish laying their money woes out for the world. For me, part of this process of having a healthier relationship with money, is being honest about where I am. To see my other posts on our money journey click here.) This seems to be the week of updates and one of the most exciting ones for me is that I am one month away from paying off credit card number 2! This Best Buy card was at $2,536,13 when we started this FPU journey in September. The current balance is $786! We have been working our butts off on budgeting for the house and for debt, while still getting to do some fun stuff along the way. (This weekend, for example, I am heading to Chicago to hang with my Esther for a few days!). I still can't believe we were able to do so much work on the house while still paying down this debt.

Without further delay, here is the full debt update:

Here is where we are at the start of March:

  • $1,000 ER fund
  • $140 Christmas Fund
  • $260 Home Repair Fund
  • $40 Walter & Skip Fund
  • $40 car repair fund
  • AMEX PAID OFF! ($2,000 credit card).
  • Best buy card: Balance of $786. $436!
  • Next card is BOA with a balance of $2,185. Then it's Chase with $2,804 and then Southwest with (GULP) $4,837.
  • After those credit cards, we've got my small student loan (around $6,000) and the Rover (around $10,000).
  • All of this debt will be paid off in September 2015... we are contemplating selling the Rover, saving the money we make from the sale and going down to one car for a few months. Then buying a truck to assist with all things home, garden, and wedding. I can get pretty good rates through my work so we are going to run the numbers to see what works best for us.
  • We will be paying cash for the entire wedding and honeymoon (we are going to take a delayed honeymoon in February or March after the wedding so that we pay cash for it!). I opened a second checking account and our wedding budget goes straight into that account each paycheck.
  • I am not using cash for as many things as I was, and am committed to getting back to using more cash.
  • LB and I are still communicating about money better than we ever have and are super excited about our financially (more) peaceful future.

Again, this is hard work y'all. Even now, seeing the progress we have made, I still get discouraged and overwhelmed. As soon as I start to beat myself up for the INSANE amounts of credit card debt I racked up, I just have to remember that what is done is done and no amount of being mean to myself is going to change that. I am making changes now and that is what matters. Please add us to your prayers (if you do that sort of thing)... we need all the good juju we can get!