June Progress Report and the best $20 I ever spent!

What a difference six months can make!

It is hard to believe that it was just half a year ago that we decided we’d had enough of living a life of debt.  This decision to finally do something about our finances all stemmed from a $20 used set of Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace CDs purchased off of eBay as a Christmas gift for my hubby.  We were broke, and I said that listening to the CDs would be his Christmas gift to me. Hubby not only listened to the CDs but he also quickly became a Dave Ramsey junkie!  I dare say that was the best $20 I have ever spent!  We set our start date as Jan 1st, 2017 and although still in debt, have made what we feel is significant progress!

The past six months has been a crazy ride of saving, cash-flowing, and paying down debt.  It hasn’t all been easy but nor is living life weighed down by debt.  With each passing month, our load gets a little lighter.  We are finally controlling our money rather than having it control us!

Today I closed the books for June.  With all of our scheduled payments credited, it is highly doubtful that anything else will change this month.  I am pleased to report that June was a fantastic month for us.  Our goal for the month was to reduce our debt by $1,500.  Not only did we meet our goal but we also surpassed it by paying off $2,279.76 of our debt!  This puts our total debt payoff at $9,259.97 since starting on our journey!

What do I hope to see for July?  I’d like to see a couple of things.  Our smallest debt (a Visa) is now at $4,459.91.  I’d like to see that get below $4,000.  There is just something psychological about seeing that first 4 change to a 3!  Secondly, I would like to see us hit the 10K mark of debt paid off.  Given how close we are, this should be reasonable.  We still have some hefty things to cash flow  (6-month auto insurance, some dental work for Hubby and also a vehicle repair) that initially I had expected to pay in June.  Not paying these bills in June is also why our snowball was much larger this month.  Someday I’ll get a better handle on sinking funds!   With me working my seasonal job, I also felt confident that we could cash flow these expenses.

As for the next six months of our journey, I’d like to see our smallest debt completely gone.  Once my seasonal position ends, I know our snowball will also decrease, so it will be a challenge to make that happen.   I’d be thrilled to eliminate that debt all while we keep taking bites out of our other debts.  I won’t wish my life away, but admittedly I am eager to see our numbers after a full year of our journey.

I know some of you might feel it will never happen or that it is too late to turn your finances around.  Trust me; I’ve felt that way, too.  There are days I still wonder if it will ever happen.  While I’m certainly no financial expert, I would like to encourage you to keep up the fight.  Most of us didn’t get into debt overnight, and we aren’t likely to get out of debt overnight either.  Like many things in life, it is a process and takes time.  Make a decision never to give up!  We can do this…A Dime at a Time!