Living Debt Free–Nine Months Later

It’s hard to believe, but it’s already been nine months since my husband and I announced we were debt free.  Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover was the catalyst for this life change, and his Seven Baby Steps are our roadmap to financial peace… here’s where we are in this journey thus far.

Baby Step 1.  $1000 to start an Emergency Fund

  DONE!

Baby Step 2. Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball

DONE!

Baby Step 3. 3 to 6 months expenses in savings

   IN PROGRESS…

So, nine months later… we’re still working on baby step 3.  We had a big setback in May when I had to have an unexpected surgery that cost quite a bit out of pocket.  It sucked for several reasons, but was a perfect testimony to the importance of the emergency fund.  We were able to pay for the surgery in cash, something we wouldn’t have been able to do before we were debt free.

We also diverted a little from the Baby Steps by setting aside a home improvement fund.  I admit this was with a lot of persuasion from me… but luckily I was able to win over Mr. home.made.  I set up a budget worksheet for the various projects and purchases and have been keeping close tabs to be sure I stay within my budget.  I’ll share this with you soon…

Right now, we’re almost halfway to our savings goal and hope to be there by the spring.

  Next baby step?  Invest 15% income into Roth IRA and pretax retirements.

Of course, we have something a little more fun in mind…

We’ll see what Dave says when we get to this point…

Decorating on a Budget Woes

You know when you have that magical aha! moment of design inspiration and you know exactly what you want to do with a space in a home?  It's such an incredible feeling, right?


And then you have the realization that you're married to Dave Ramsey, Jr. and that joy, that elation of the. most. perfect. room. ever. gets squashed like a tiny bug into the concrete sidewalk of life.


I therefore squash you, hopes and dreams of creating a perfect space!


Today, I am that bug.  And I am peeling up what's left of my plan for our newly repainted office off the bottom of Mr. home.made.'s shoes.  After telling him about what I was thinking of doing in the room, it came down to the fact that we need to buy new furniture... and that, well... wasn't quite part of the "Live Like No One Else" plan.

*sigh*


I know we're doing the right thing, paying down debt so we can truly can be debt free, but I have to be honest ya'll, I'm not excited about the prospect of waiting another eight years before I'm allowed to purchase anything that's not in "The Budget".


I've picked out what I want for the room - and the likelihood of it being around when we finally say good riddance to ole' Dave is pretty slim. 


*sob*


I guess that means I'll have to move on to Plan B: Improvise and Save Up.


Last night I put two items of furniture on Craigslist and I hopefully already have one sold, so if that (fingers crossed) happens, I'll have the beginnings of an Office Redo savings fund.  I had planned on purchasing a new desk space and a new sleeper sofa, and while I'm willing to compromise on the desk and try to thrift one, I'm unwilling to do that with a sleeper sofa.  Ew. Can't do it.  Sorry guys, but my job is all about communicable disease and the thought of a "used" sleeper sofa grosses me out.


Now that I've been firmly put in my place, I'm gonna see just what this girl can accomplish.


So what about you?  Surely I'm not the only one fighting the budget battle?

Live Like No One Else

I'm sure by now most of you have heard of this guy:

In case he doesn't look familiar to you... say hello to Dave Ramsey.  In case you're not familiar with what he does, I can pretty much some it up in two words:  DEBT FREE. 

I read Dave's Total Money Makeover book a few years back when a friend of mine signed up for Financial Peace University (she is debt free now, by the way).  Great book, easy to follow plan, but the commitment just wasn't there.  We were overwhelmed with the day to day that was a newborn and a two year old.

Fast forward four years - this time, my husband decides to hop on board the DR train, and true to his nature, it's full speed ahead.  We lined up our budget and accounts through Mint so we could keep a close eye on where our money is going (Mint will even send alerts when spending is higher than expected or when you're over budget - impressive) and focus on getting rid of the monkey on our backs that is debt.

Luckily, we're not in as bad of shape financially as some of the folks on Dave's plan, but we're still motivated to get rid of the debt we have, starting with paying off a home improvement loan and my car (what?  you mean you don't have to live forever with a car payment?!) and then progressing to paying down our mortgage. 

We're not exactly living the DR lifestyle 100% (we still have cable, internet, i-phones... we have to stay sane here, people), but we have cut back on other spending to achieve this goal.  That means that all of those great projects I had planned, the furniture I had already bought in my mind (interest free for 18 months!), the drapes I'd drooled over... it's all on the back burner for now.  I can't tell you how much I don't like to say that (even knowing we're doing the right thing) cause I had this idea of how I wanted our home to look and by golly, I wanted it to look like that, um, now.  *sigh*  Looking at everyone's awesome decor ideas and home projects doesn't help either - the little green eyed dragon of envy comes out and I can't help but want to throw a little pity party just for me.  I seriously don't know how some of you do it - have seemingly neverending funds for furniture, flooring, shopping all while staying at home, raising your five kids, volunteering, and building orphanages in third world countries.

Okay, a little exaggeration there, but you get me, right?

And then my pity party is over and I realize that once we make it through this, it's going to be so freeing.  Dave's mantra is "Live like no one else now so you can live like no one else later".  I can't wait for the later, cause it's going to be great... and I have to keep reminding myself that when I feel a little *wah boo* coming on.  

Another plus?  Worked into our budget is a little cashola for my "hobbies", so I will be able to still do some fun projects for the house, or for me, or for the girls.  I'll just have to stay within my allotted amount, saving some months for larger planned purchases (meaning I'll need to get more thrifty and creative), and my plans/projects might have to be spread out over a greater length of time as the budget allows. 

So stick around on this new little venture with us...  I hope to discover new ways to reuse and repurpose items and I hope to inspire you to create and dream without breaking the bank. 

Before long, I also hope to come on here and announce that we are members of the Debt Free club!

Care to join me?