Financial Update

I used to write a frugal blog and loved doing it. But I realized it was taking away from my priorities of wife and mom. I updated regularly on our financial progress and decided I would like to continue that every month or two on this, my family blog. I saved my old updates and don't expect anyone to read through all of this. It is more for me to have record of my families progress to debt free living.

Currently, our only debt is our mortgage, but we have a first and a second mortgage after refinancing earlier this year to a 15 year fixed rate loan. At that time we made a goal to try to pay the second mortgage off ($18,000) by December 31 of this year. This is a seemingly unattainable goal, but so far we are 57% complete. In addition we have 100% of our Christmas fund saved to pay cash for gifts, cards, parties, travel, etc. We will continue to work towards paying off this loan before we start fully funding an emergency fund.

We also have been working on completing our food storage goals: 3 months worth of food and a year's supply of basic needs.

August 1, 2010

Here were our goals for June (I didn’t write a July update):
• Have 100% savings for our family vacation to San Diego in July. (We spent CASH for our relaxing and fun trip to San Diego. We were gone 9 nights and spent a day at Disneyland, one at Sea World and one at San Diego Zoo. Vacation is much more fun when you are using cash and we came in $22 under budget!)
• Pay off the 2nd Mortgage Loan by December 31, 2010. (This goal is 55% complete. We have brought in quite a bit of extra money over the summer and most of it has gone to this loan.)
• Put away the credit card and use cash. (Incomplete. We do use cash on some things, but still enjoy the convenience of plastic. I feel ashamed to say it, but it's true!)
• Bring in an additional $300 to put towards the loan. (I started a business with a friend: Vintage Temple Photos. We are very fortunate in that we have already turned a profit and even have put our items in a local store. So this goal is complete!)

Our Goals for August:
• Pay off the 2nd Mortgage Loan by December 31, 2010. Until the end of the year, we are completely focused on living within our budget and putting every extra penny to this loan. I still don't know if it will be possible, but it won't be because we didn't try hard. We now own 18% of our home!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

April/May Financial Update
We have to have goals, otherwise we will never go anywhere nor could we ever get ahead financially. Reviewing our goals reminds us of where we are going and also helps us to celebrate our accomplishments. I didn't do an update earlier this month, so this will be a 2 month update.

Here were our goals for April:
• Pay off 2nd mortgage loan by December, 31 2010 (This goal is 27% complete. I have felt a little discouraged with this goal. Looking at the numbers, it will be nearly impossible to complete this year. But I am still keeping it as a goal. I would rather miss the target by a few months than make the bank a lot of money by paying them interest for the next 15 years!)
• Pay cash for our family vacation to San Diego in July.(We put money into savings and also purchased some tickets for parks we will be visiting. We have a written budget for: food, gas, park entrances and souvenirs. Our lodging is paid for by my husbands parents. This goal is 67% complete.)
• Pay cash for new tires for the van. (100% complete! And all the warranty paperwork is together where we know where to find it.)
• Try using cash envelopes (again) for groceries, gifts and clothing. (We still are not using all cash. Not complete.)
• Find a few creative ways to bring in some extra income this month. Ideas include: online surveys and having a yard sale. (We made over $500 with a yard sale, most of which went to our 2nd mortgage loan. We received over $300 in rebates and miscellaneous income during the last 2 months.)

Our goals for June are:
• Have 100% savings for our family vacation to San Diego in July.
• Continue to make extra payments to pay off the 2nd Mortgage Loan by December 31, 2010.
• Put away the credit card and use cash.
• Bring in an additional $300 to put towards the loan. I am going to start watching a neighbor's daughter a few times per week. I will be selling some crafts and also hope to sell a few more household items through classifieds and ebay.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

March Financial Update!
It’s time for our Financial Update or “Check-up” as I like to think of it. Reviewing our goals reminds us of where we are going and also helps us to celebrate our accomplishments. Click here for our last 2010 update.

Here were our goals for March:

Pay off 2nd mortgage loan by December 31, 2010 - (18% Complete) Every rebate check, reimbursement check, or extra money that is found, goes to this loan. I visited the bank 3 times in March to make payments. We now own 13.5% of our home.

Pay cash for our family vacation to San Diego in July. (Saved 10% of our goal in March making our total 10% saved)

Here are our goals for April:
• Continue our goals from March - Pay off 2nd mortgage loan by December, 31 2010 and Pay cash for our family vacation to San Diego in July.
• Pay cash for new tires for the van. Since we paid off our van loan last June, we have had a lot of repair work needed. Thank goodness we aren't also trying to pay that debt!
• Try using cash envelopes (again) for groceries, gifts and clothing. My husband does not like the cash method, but I feel strongly that we spend less when using cash. So I have decided to use mostly cash, but still leave some in the checking account for my husband to use his debit card as he wishes.
• Find a few creative ways to bring in some extra income this month. Ideas include: online surveys and having a yard sale.
I also wanted to mention that when I was calculating the end of the months numbers, we ending up with extra money in our checking account. My spreadsheet had all our income accounted for and all of our expenses and it just didn't add up. We had this money that was just . . . there! I came to the conclusion that we are being blessed for paying our tithing first and for our righteous desire to live debt free!

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

February Financial Update
Part of goal setting is reviewing those goals. It helps keep us accountable, motivated and on track. So here is a review of our 2010 Financial Goals:
1. Pay off Mom Loan by June 1 (loan from my mom that we borrowed before we read Dave's book and our only debt other than the mortgage) 100% complete!!! My husband is now on city council and we are using the extra income that brings in towards our financial goals. We also have had 2 months without a mortgage payment after refinancing our mortgage. Those things combined with our large tax refund allowed us to pay off this loan 3 months early!
2. File our taxes by February 28. Use tax refund towards paying off Mom Loan. 100% Complete!
3. Build 3 month emergency fund by December 31. 13% Complete
4. Pay cash for our family vacation to San Diego by July 1. 0% Complete
After closing on the Refinance of our Home Mortgage, our goals have changed a little bit. We ended up with a 1st and a 2nd mortgage which is explained in the post. So following Dave's advice, we are going to be in step 2 awhile longer and pay off the 2nd mortgage before fully funding the emergency fund. The 2nd mortgage is 30% of our annual gross income and Dave recommends anything under 50% should go into the debt snowball. So here are our updated goals!
1. Pay off 2nd mortgage loan by December 31, 2010 - This is kind of a lofty goal. We are going to be throwing as much money and extra income we can at this every month to be able to pay it off this year.
2. Pay cash for our family vacation to San Diego in July. - My husbands family is going to San Diego and our hope is to go with them, but only if we can save the cash. I have started teaching couponing classes and will be saving that money for this purpose.
A side note, we just made our first mortgage payments after refinancing. With the shorter term (15 year instead of 30) and the lower interest rate, we are paying more principle than interest every month! I almost cried when I saw the numbers.

Thursday, December 31, 2009

2010 Financial Goals
In December, 2008, I read The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey for the first time. It changed the way I thought about my finances and gave me lots of encouragement to "live like no one else so later we can live like now one else." I took that encouragement to take a deep look at our finances and begin making some changes in the way we deal with them. This year we have been able to: pay off our only vehicle, pay cash for our medical bills that came with having baby #3, begin building an emergency fund, pay cash for a few unexpected repairs, researched insurance options and saved $300 annually by switching companies, refinance our home to a 15 year mortgage, reduce our monthly grocery budget by beginning couponing and find some creative ways to bring in a little extra income. There have been some moments of frustration or set backs, but looking back at the whole year we can be pleased with the fact that we made progress.

We hope to continue that progress to Financial Freedom in 2010 and have set some goals for the coming year. The percentages listed with the goal is the percent complete we are with that goal.
1. Pay off Mom Loan by June 1 (loan from my mom that we borrowed before we read Dave's book and our only debt other than the mortgage) 20% complete
2. File our taxes by February 28. Use tax refund towards paying off Mom Loan. 0% Complete
3. Build 3 month emergency fund by December 31. 3% Complete
4. Pay cash for our family vacation to San Diego by July 1. 0% Complete
Setting goals provides us encouragement, accountability and ability to celebrate our successes.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009
November Financial Check-up
Having written financial goals is the first step to saving money. We have a written monthly budget but have also started writing specific goals each month to help us to stay within that budget or pinch those pennies a little bit harder.

After several visits from Murphy in September, he decided to visit again with a $1,000 car repair. Again, I am glad we don't have a car payment. We still are attempting to replace our baby emergency fund from depleting it in September. We are lucky that my husband has a photography side business. We used funds from the business to cover the car repair and stay under budget.

Here were our Goals for November:
1. Add to our baby emergency fund goal of $1000.We put $120 into savings this month.
2. Add to our 3 month food storage. I finished my written 3 month plan. We bought a few spices in bulk and by matching coupons and a sale, I got cream of chicken soup for .24 a can.
3. Refinance to a 15 year Mortgage. After getting 4 quotes from different mortgage companies, we chose one and are waiting for paperwork to go through and the appraisal to be ordered.
4. Have a debt-free Christmas. We have our shopping list and budget to go with it. We got a lot of our shopping done last weekend and I just reviewed our list again to keep us on track. Our Christmas budget is 19% of our monthly net pay. I thought that was an interesting view of the Christmas budget. I am sure that sounds high to some, but low to others.

Our Goals for December:
1. Complete the Refinance on our Home
2. Spend only $250 this month on Food & Grocery - We plan on doing this by eating from the pantry and using some rebate money to take advantage of sale items.
3. Use less electricity - Every night, we are checking the outlets to unplug everything that doesn't need to be plugged in: cell phone chargers, lamps, appliances, etc. We also are trying to make a concerted effort to turn out the lights and watch less television.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

October Financial Check-up
Here were October's Goals:
1. Back to step 1 - Build an emergency fund of $1000.After several visits from Murphy in September, we had to go back to baby step 1. We were under budget in October, but only able to put $60 into savings this month.
2. Create a 3 month food storage plan. I have a written plan and will be sharing it soon. We were able to make a few purchases to add to our food storage and our freezers are full, so we feel extremely blessed.
3. Research refinancing our home loan. We are working with 4 companies to see who can get us the best rate and the lowest closing costs. Right now it looks as though we will be able to drop our interest rate by 2% and we also are going to refinance to a 15 year loan. Our payments will be higher, but we will save almost $100,000 in interest with a shorter term and lower rate.

Goals for November:
1. Add to our baby emergency fund goal of $1000.
2. Add to our 3 month food storage.
3. Refinance to a 15 year Mortgage.
4. Have a debt-free Christmas.

Monday, October 5, 2009

September Financial Check-up
We have been following Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps and set a goal to become debt free other than the mortgage by 2010. We began 2009 with some credit card debt, a car loan and a loan from my sweet Mom. So far this year we have paid off the credit card and the car loan, a total of 53% of our debt. We are behind as we are entering the last quarter of the year. But we also had baby #3, paid cash for the medical bills and have not incurred any more debt. So we are counting our many blessings and continuing with our debt snowball. Beginning September I knew we would not have extra funds to pay down our debt. September is our smallest paycheck of the year and our car registration is due. So I budgeted accordingly and we got a visit from Murphy. In fact we got several visits. We are a one vehicle family and our battery in the van completely died on us the same day my cell phone died on me (we don't have a land line, so that is our only phone). Luckily I had an old phone and only had to pay $15 for a charger, but it was $110 to replace the battery in the van. I took the van in for inspection to renew our car registration and they informed us that in order to pass inspection, it was going to be $495 in repairs. Ouch. But we had our baby step 1 emergency fund and we hadn't been paying on a car loan for 3 months, so we took a deep breath, thanked the Lord for our blessings and made the necessary repairs. The next day our hot water heater died and we spent the weekend without hot water. First thing Monday morning, the plumber came and informed us that we could spend $150 to repair it or $500 to buy a new one. But he said the current water heater was in bad shape and wasn't sure the repair would last us long. So we depleted our emergency fund, paid for a new hot water heater and again the Lord blessed us in finding some extra funds to get us through the rest of the month.

Goals for October:
1. Back to step 1 - Build an emergency fund of $1000.
2. Create a 3 month food storage plan.
3. Research refinancing our home loan.