September 2013

“I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.” ~ John D Rockefeller

For August we were right on target with $658 extra being paid towards our debt snowball. My big savings last month was a photo book I made for my sister for her birthday which ended up costing me only $8 and my sister absolutely loved it!

September is shaping up to be better as far as our debt snowball goes. We have budgeted to pay $865 towards our debt and there doesn’t seem to be any potential surprises. I do wish I was done with this debt as there are a couple of events I would love to attend but can’t right now, namely the Entreleadership 1 day in Orlando and Jon Acuff’s Start Conference in Tennessee. I guess I will just have to use this disappointment to fuel our gazelle intensity…

So our debt snowball at the end of August was:

Car loan 1	(2,797.98)
Car loan 2	(6,218.55)
Sallie Mae	(27,713.90)
Total	(36,730.43)

 

And our projected numbers at the end of September as the budget stands:

Car loan 1	(1,942.15)
Car loan 2	(5,966.06)
Sallie Mae	(27,670.95)
Total	(35,579.16)

 

So as you can see, we are moving in the right direction but I only wish it were faster. I may have to look into some other ways to increase our income. Ebay is slow right now and there isn’t much action on Etsy either. Hopefully it will pick up again for the holidays, but right now the small amount of sales is not helping us. If you have any ideas for a full time working mom of a 9 month old, please leave a comment below 🙂

July 2013

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” ~ Lao-tzu

July is one of our leaner months. We get paid weekly so some months we have four paychecks and some months, five. July has four. Our only nonrecurring expense is my husband’s niece and nephew’s birthday party at the end of the month.

Previously we would have spent at least $40-50 on each of them. This year our budget is $25 each. This is hard for us as the birthday extravaganza is a little overwhelming. My sister-in-law is a caterer and throws a huge bash with at least 80-100 people and the piles of gifts are a bit intimidating. The only consolation is the children receive so many gifts they probable don’t even remember who gave them what.

One of my challenges this month is the food budget. I want to reduce our weekly allotment from $150 to $140. This doesn’t seem like much but it could make or break the budget. I will probably have to put some items back at checkout the first few weeks. We also reduced how much we set aside for the baby. I usually spend $200 a month on baby items, not including baby food and diapers. I reduced this to $150. He is finally slowing down in his growth so hopefully we won’t need to buy as much clothing as previously.

Unless we can scrounge up some extra income, we will have $430 to pay toward our smaller car loan. With our minimum payments on our other two debts, this will bring our debt snowball to $37940. $430 is not very much but I know we have some bigger income months coming up so my hope is we will gain momentum by the end of the year.

So our debt snowball at the end of June was:

Car loan 1	(4,136.91)
Car loan 2	(6,721.76)
Sallie Mae	(27,799.08)
Total	(38,657.75)

 

And at the end of July as it stands it will be:

 

Car loan 1	(3,713.05)
Car loan 2	(6,470.45)
Sallie Mae	(27,756.61)
Total	(37,940.11)