(we still need to save $25 to cover the money we spent at WDW last month, plus the $37.93 overspending in March)
I’m not going to beat myself up too much though, because our parking fees for the trip were over $100! We should easily come in under budget for April because the pantry/freezer are well stocked and we’re planning a garage sale this month.
Our $400 spending budget has to cover all groceries, household supplies, personal care products, gifts, clothes and other shopping purchases, as well as home improvement and entertainment. It’s about a 30% reduction to our spending budget. As a partial reward for buckling down and spending even less than with our previous shoe-string budget, we took a trip to Disney World in February with our savings. It was a great feeling to know that we had been intentional about making this trip happen through our diligence and not just because we happened to have extra money like 8 years ago when we went to Disney World! My husband would really like to enter the 21st century and buy an HD flat screen tv. I think that will probably be our next savings goal!
We just paid another extra 5 payments on our house in Arkansas from the proceeds of selling my husband’s unused truck in January. We’re expecting a sizeable tax refund/credit too, so I’m thrilled to continue chunking larger amounts at the principal. Our property manager was able to get the house rented with only a couple week’s vacancy. It sounds like we aren’t getting stuck with a hefty repair bill this time, so that was a huge relief to our budget!
If you haven’t been following our quest to pay off both houses and be 100% debt free, you can catch up here.
Getting Out of Debt Step 1: Know how much debt you have and the associated interest rates.
Getting Out of Debt Step 2: Build an Emergency Fund
Getting Out of Debt Step 3 (Budgeting Step 1): Know how much money you have to spend and make sure your tax withholdings are correct.
Getting Out of Debt Step 4: Create a Budget
Budgeting Step 2: Track your current expenses– preferably 1 year’s worth – to see where you’re spending money.
Budgeting Step 3: Make a plan for all your money, taking into account one time expenses.
Budgeting Step 4: Check up weekly
Budgeting Step 5: Reassess monthly
June Update
July Update
August Update
September Update
October Update
November Update
December Update
January 2013 Update
February 2013 Update
Estimated date to have both houses paid in full: November 2020! This puts us in a great position to help our kids with their first vehicle and pay state tuition for their college.
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