May 2013 Getting Out of Debt Update

June 6, 2013 by 3 Comments
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Spending budget: $400/mo.

We bought $404.98 and made $5.

Total spent in May : $404.98 – $5 = $399.98    :-)
If you’re wondering how in the world we are able to do this, you might want to read this post on cutting your household and grocery expenses.

Current splurge $$ from coming in under budget:  $149.25

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. If we come in under the $400, half will go towards the principal on our 2 homes and the other half will be split between us for splurge money. 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. Our next goal for our splurge money  is to pay for a flat screen tv – it will be our first!
We were only able to pay a little extra on the mortgages in May.  Not quite one payment on the house in Arkansas :-(  The repairs I was estimating to be around $4,000 turned into nearly $7,000!  I’m going to have to work extra hard to earn extra money and keep our spending under wraps if we’re going to stay on track to pay the houses off in 2020.
Is your family being intentional to get debt paid off before it’s due?  I’d love to hear your story, and to even share it here as a guest post if you’re interested.

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
March 2013 Update

April 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.

Filed Under: debt

Comments

  1. S. Davis says:
    June 6, 2013 at 4:35 pm

    We refinanced the house to 15-yr mortgage in Feb. The payment went up slightly (don’t remember exact amount) but we cut about 7yrs off mortgage & cut interest in 1/2 (again, don’t remember exact amount of interest rate reduction).

    Reply
    • Cricket says:
      June 6, 2013 at 4:46 pm

      yay! I was thrilled with our refinance back in December. We were able to get a 20 yr loan and only raise our payment by $7. Our home in Arkansas has a lower rate already (2.85 I think) but no one will refinance it because we owe so little on it. Not that it would be worth the closing costs anyway if we can stay on track :-)

      Reply
  2. Gordon Anderson says:
    June 10, 2013 at 6:54 pm

    My wife and I recently started couponing and I stumbled onto your website while searching the web. I am a government employee that will be dealing with the furlough soon and was looking for a way to offset a reduction in pay. I use your CVS post weekly and have started reading your post on your quest to pay off your homes by 2020. I wanted to take the time to thank you for inspiring me to create my own spending budget and for all the time you spend posting on your website. I have bragged on your website at work sharing some of the amazing deals that you have helped me find. Keep up the good work and thanks again for being a positive influence!

    Reply

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