Step Away From the Panic Button!!

Did you hear it? Did you hear the celebration when we made our final payment to another student loan this morning? If you've been following our blog this last year, you know this is very exciting news! We started 2012 with 3 final debts, all three of those debts were student loans. We paid off the first of those 3 loans in April 2012.

Our attack strategy is called the Debt Snowball. Here's the jist...we make minimum payments on all of our debts except the smallest balance. The debt with the smallest balance gets all of the extra money we can scrape up and we pile it on until it's paid off! (Need extra money? Check out how to make a zero-based budget) Then you take all the extra money and minimum payment from the smallest debt (which is gone now!!) and put it on the next smallest balance and BAM you've got a debt snowball! So in May 2012 we did just that and started chipping away at the next student loan balance and paid it off today. ONE MORE LOAN LEFT!!!

Because we were getting so close to our goal, naturally, something had to go wrong! So far this month, we have had some "planned emergencies" and found out we needed to set enough money aside to get the fuel injectors replaced in one of our cars and save money for Chris to get some dental work done. Next, I guess we needed a "spontaneous emergency," our same sick car needed a new battery today. So glad we don't have the debt we did four years ago or we wouldn't have the ability to put as much money into life happening than we were able to this week. Sorry no panic button today!

2013 Debt Pay-Off: 1,606.49

Total Debt Pay-Off: 39,606.49 <--- even closer to $40,000!! :)

You Snooze, You Lose!

We just opened our first envelope of 2013. We also just hit the four year mark since we started the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University class. At times, four years has felt like a really long time to be chipping away at the same goal. I get discouraged some days because I just want it to be finished.

Leave it to God's word to pull me out of my small-minded thinking. Obviously His timing is perfect, He will not delay. This Old Testament book reads more like our current time and culture than Old Testament living.

So if you feel stuck in a rut, ask God for a vision-something to make your days on earth make a greater impact. He desires purposeful living not aimless meandering for our lives. Our financial life isn't the only thing we have been intentional about. We've grown up in our marriage and faith in the last four years too. We don't even feel like the same people we were 4 years ago; for the better, most certainly!

This year I decided to start one new thing that would help me be more intentional. It's monumental- get ready....in 2013 I, Teresa Brown, will wake up when my alarm goes off. So far (except for the morning I pushed snooze in my sleep) it has happened. Something about hitting the snooze button used to start my day off the wrong way and it led to other lazy decision-making. I've had time each morning to read while I drink my coffee- which is such a great way for me to start the day.

**What is one thing you can start today?

2013 Debt Pay-off: $1,075.90

Total Debt Pay-off: $39,075.90  <-- So close to $40,000!!

2013 Here we Come...$1,000 at a Time!

Happy New Year!! One year ago we started the super snowball to pay-off our student loan debt. It has been a great year! It was so great...we want to do it again! Stay tuned to find out how!

In 2012...

• We paid off one of our three student loans
• We paid off $14,000 to make our debt pay-off total $38,000!! That's 14 envelopes!!
• We bought a replacement car when Chris' car broke down
• We made a monthly budget to follow
• We made goals for 2013 to make it even more intentional than 2012!



Goals for 2013

Instead of the normal New Year’s Resolutions this year, why not set some goals for 2013? If you are really interested in doing something different this year set goals and make a plan. Here are the 5 areas we focused on in 2012 and I feel like we have become a better version of ourselves because of it. We still have plenty to work on in 2013!!

1.       Physical Goals

2.       Relational Goals

3.       Financial Goals

4.       Spiritual Goals

5.       Professional Goals

Physical Goals

Losing weight, working out regularly, eating better, or creating more balance are great goals to start with.  Make a workout plan that improves on what you are already doing little by little. If you don’t work out at all, don’t make a commitment from January 1 to workout 6 days a week. Decide in January to workout 1 day a week for 30 minutes. February can build on that. You didn’t make bad habits in one month, you aren’t going to turn the ship around in one month either.

Relational Goals

I divided mine up into different categories. I wanted to improve with my relationship with my husband and I made some goals that I kept and a lot that I broke too. I made goals to improve my relationship with myself…weird, I know. I don’t always have the best things to say about myself and I don’t want to continue that habit. In order for some of my ME goals to happen I had to say “no” to other good things. I also wanted to set goals in my relationship with Ethan; I want to be a better mom, even in the small things. I wrote down goals to improve relationships with my best friend, small group, and the people I see at church.

Financial Goals

Well you know we were all over these! We made specific goals for 2012 and are on target to meet them despite all of the bumps in the road. I’ve learned that for as many set-backs we’ve had financially, we’ve been blessed that much and more. Our financial plan started almost 4 years ago with both of us dreaming about what we could do if we had money. Start by dreaming about where all your money would go if you didn’t pay a penny to debt. For us that was a lot of money 4 years ago. We are a little over a year from that moment…our conversations have been so fun thinking about the freedom that comes with no payments!! Until then, we forge ahead!

Here is a podcast that we have recently listened to that helped us start thinking about financial goals for 2013. Check out the website- http://howtoberich.org/

Spiritual Goals

This is a big one for us too. We desire to be a serving part of our church family. We also want to put a plan in place to grow in our personal relationship with Jesus daily. We’ve learned in all of these areas that discipline grows when we do something even when we don’t feel like it. I’ve lapsed on my discipline in this area some this year and plan on making a better plan for 2013.

Professional Goals

I spend most of my waking hours at work and want those hours to be purposeful too. I chose some areas that align with my passion and pushed myself to do a better job. I teach physical education to K-4^th graders and I get energy from seeing kids get healthier. I have a considerable population of students in the overweight and obese categories and I want to do whatever I can to help those kids learn about the habits to become healthy kids so they will be healthy adults someday too.

YTD Debt Pay-Off: $13,151.90
Total Debt Pay-Off: $37,151.90

$1,000 Pizza!!

Well...it wasn't exactly a thousand dollar pizza. If you are new to our family blog, we are high-tailing it out of debt and for every thousand dollars we've paid off this year we get a surprise. In January of 2012 we were around $35,000 in debt and I made 35 envelopes with some sort of note of encouragement or little break to keep us motivated to move forward. It has really worked for us. We've kept the course and yesterday we opened the $12,000 envelope making us even closer to our goal. Our last 2 debts are student loans so the card inside the envelope told us to go back to those college days and get a pizza. Our goal is to pay off $14,000 by January 2013. We are right on track to make that happen. Thanks for checking in with us- it's just as encouraging to see people reading my blog as it was to go eat the pizza we earned! :)

Here's our next target---



YTD Debt Pay-off: $12,000

Total Debt Pay-off: $36,000



Say Cheese!

Fall is the perfect time for this party of three to take some professional pictures together. So we budgeted the cost for a photographer and prints and so far we are under budget! (Love it when that happens!!)

We decided to get one of our pictures blown-up in black and white at the UPS store. We spent $2.50 on the engineer print and then went out in search for a frame. I had this 75% off coupon to Michaels for custom framing and knew it would be our best bet. Our 24x36 inch print wouldn't be cheap to frame, but with 75% off- it should fit right into our budget...so I thought! We were at Michaels for 45 minutes trying to find the best deal for this print. I kept reminding them that I only spent $2.50 on the print so the MOST inexpensive frame is what I want! After they cut out all the bells and whistles and took my 75% off they quoted us $140!! What?! That's when we left empty-handed and went elsewhere!

My husband had a great idea to go to an art and frame store across the street and ask for any clearance frames. He went in to ask while I stayed in the car with Ethan. In about 2 minutes he came out with a huge frame. With the look of shock/horror on my face he told me that the lady in the store gave it to him for free and it was the exact size we needed! Horror turned to joy and excitement really fast! We fixed a few scratches with a black sharpie and it is proudly mounted on our wall!

We paid off another $1,000 on October 19th making this $11,000 for 2012! We couldn't be happier! The next few months might be scary financially for most, but we have a very detailed budget for every dollar even during the holidays. We won't have to wake up on New Years Day with a financial hang-over from the holiday season. 


YTD Debt Pay-off: $11,390.72
Total Debt Pay-off: $35,390.72


Here are some of our family pictures- courtesy of Katy Gitto Photography

10,000 and 2

10,000
It's been a big last few weeks for us! We opened a $10,000 envelope which means we've paid off $10,000 of student loan debt since January 1, 2012. It was a huge milestone for us, we kept looking at our refrigerator and having to remind each other that, we've almost paid off $10,000 this year!! It was a strange but great feeling. The note inside the envelope told us to turn in the change from our change jar and cash it in for a date. Usually that's a pretty good chunk of change...except we recently used some of it to wash both dirty cars! We scraped up around $18 in change and went to see the final Bourne movie in a theater with leather recliners! It was a much needed night out together.

2
Ethan is now a 2 year old! He is also learning about money now that he's so big. Ethan has 5 chores that he can do to learn responsibility in our family and when he completes one of those chores he gets a sticker on a chart. After all 5 chores are complete he gets to put 5 pennies in his bank. We like it because it's a good way to get him to help out the first time asked and he also works on some fine motor skills by putting pennies in a slot. As he gets older these 5 chores will be ones that he will do without pay because he's a part of our family and then do some more challenging chores for a commission. Pennies work great since he has no concept of the value of money, we just want him to get excited about helping out.

YTD Debt Pay-off: $10,027.33

Total Debt Pay-off: $34,027.33