Skip to main content

Our first month of Financial Peace


We just completed our first month of financial peace. Honestly, in regards to finances, it was the least stressful month we've had in years. We paid off over $89,000 in debt last month, the majority was from selling our home. Huge relief!

We also had over a third of our emergency fund in place. However, we ended up having to use it because there was a dead in the family and my husband had to travel out of state. It was less stressful because we had a partial emergency fund in place. We didn't question whether he should go or how we would get him there, he simply went. No worries.

We have started out our second month with budget in place, but not as specific as I would like. I have all our bills listed, the due date, which pay check they will be paid out of, etc. What I don't have is the envelope system in place .... yet. I will be working on getting that started in March.

We will be working on building up our emergency fund this month. We will complete our emergency fund next month when we receive our tax refund. I have already outlined what we will do with our refund, which includes building up our emergency fund and paying off up to five credit cards/loans. Cannot wait! After those five bills are paid off, we are going to snowball what the payments would have been into our next debt.

I am thankful for starting with financial peace journey. It is nice to see our debt amount going down. My only regret is that we did not start it sooner.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Vintage Christmas Wonderland - Review

When I was contacted a few weeks ago and asked if I would review a newly released Christmas album, I couldn't type fast enough to respond and say YES! Christmas is, by far, my favorite time of year.  When I received the Cds, they were wrapped in beautiful burlap and ribbon and decorated with a sparkly snowflake. Along with the Cds, there was a personal handwritten note. It was so sweet and just made the entire experience of this review scream vintage. Vintage Christmas Wonderland by David Ian has a smooth jazzy sound that takes you back to the days when life was less complicated. When I was contacted to review the album, it was described to me as " It's reminiscent of the Charlie Brown Christmas album and meant to bring warmth to the season!".  I can tell you, that is a perfect description. While listening to Vintage Christmas Wonderland, I felt like putting up my Christmas tree just so I could plug in the lights and watch them glow. I felt like starting a

Joyful Journaling - DaySpring Journal GIVEAWAY

Our children are getting older and I want them to start journaling. I want them to write down their thoughts for the day, but I also want them to journal with purpose. Our middle daughter is starting to experience more emotions as she is getting older. I am noticing that she is focusing more on things that went wrong in the day instead of the joys of the day. I came up with the idea of purposefully journaling and wanted to find the perfect journal for her to get started. A journal that would help her focus on joy! I decided to visit DaySpring and to look at their journals. I am so glad I did. I found the everyday joy journal. It is perfect! I want my children to journal with purpose. I want them to focus more on the blessings and joys of the day than focus on the negatives or disappointments of the day. Each day can be (and usually is) filled with both. It is my hope that positive thoughts will be come the norm and negative thoughts and disappointments will be lost at the end

Zipzicles review and giveaway!!

A couple weeks ago I received a package of Zipzicles to try out and review. I must say, I was super excited. You can read about how Zipzicles was started here. This summer my children and I attended VBS at our church. Since our church is a 30 minute drive and VBS ran from 8:30-12:30, I knew that I would need to pack their lunches. I attempted to make my own Zipzicle type packaging but it did not turn out well at all. I didn't take pictures because no-one needs to witness how bad they were. So, a couple months ago I found Zipzicles and wanted to give them a try. It is such a simple idea and I cannot believe no-one thought of them sooner. One of the things I like most (besides being super convenient) is that the packages are BPA free and recyclable! I also like that I know exactly what my kids are eating because I make it myself. Okay, so here is what I did. I made smoothies and put them in the Zipzicle packages. I am a big fan of tropical smoothies. Here I have coconut milk