"" Three Ladies and a Dad: June Check-Up

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

June Check-Up

June is here...that means summer! June will definitely be a busy month for us. Jeremy will be out of town two weekends and both of us will be out of town one weekend. Add to that a concert in St. Louis and it is jam packed! We did make our goal of getting a few things eliminated. It is motivating but boy is it hard!

The No Spending Experiment was can be described using only one word...challenging! We made it through 100% for the first two weeks. In hindsight, two weeks would have been the perfect goal. We did go out to eat about three times in May...no too shabby for us considering May was five weeks long instead of the usual four.

What did I learn from the NSE? I am so much more aware of where our money goes! I have learned that I can, in fact cook for 14 days straight. I would say our biggest weakness is eating out but if you look on my June menu, I allotted two nights for eating out as opposed to the weekly night out. I think this will be great for helping us reach our goal but still have a family dinner out.

Here's our updated list...

1. $1,000 to start an Emergency Fund
This has always been in place...we just have to use it instead of a credit card for emergencies.
2. Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball. Our goal is to have everything but the student loan, car and land paid off my the end of the year.
  • Doctor bill - Paid off in May 2009!
  • Doctor bill - Made large payment.
  • Credit card
  • Credit card
  • Credit card
  • Doctor bill
  • Student loan
  • My car
  • Land
May goals were altered a bit because school was not budgeted in...oops. We spent an additional $400 for a summer class I am taking. I start school next May and I am trying to take as many of the general classes as I can now so I can transfer them and make my load lighter during nursing school. If we didn't have that class to pay for, we could be a little farther but life happens, ya know?

I am going to continue on with the envelope system...it seems to work very well and helps us stop unnecessary spending which is the kicker in our house. June will hopefully allow us to pay off that the rest of the doctor bill and about half of the credit card that is next in line. We will see what happens!

(Image via.)

My financial life began turning around when I took responsibility for it.
— Dave Ramsey, Total Money Makeover

4 comments:

April said...

I LOVE this book! I remember when I first got it, I started reading it and found myself not being able to put it down! I have always been money conscious to an extent but found there were a few things that I could do differently. I do not follow this book to the T but altered it a little to fit our lifestyle a little more and take a little of my own techniques mixed with his and it works!!! Keep on keepin on!!

Hattie said...

OMG! No spending for two weeks. Way to go! I've been reading Dave's books and can't wait to get started. My only problem is my hubby. He wants no part in the budget. Hopefully I can get him on board. Fingers crossed!!!

Mom to 3 QT's said...

I've started the plan, but don't have much to start with. I'm still going with it though. It gets me excited just thinking about it!

Jennifer said...

Life does get in the way sometimes and it can be frustrating. No matter how hard I try I can't plan for everything. Good luck with school.

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