Update - August Goals

Here is an update on my August Goals:

Stick to Our Budget: ½ half of August: FAIL

We took out $400 in cash from the first paycheck in August, thinking we were going to use the envelope system and split up the expenses. One thing lead to another, and the month flew by and the cash flew out of hubby’s wallet. The good news is, we only used the cash and we didn’t use credit cards, but the bad news is I have no idea where it went so I can’t tell how much money we spend eating out/groceries/ gas etc. New plan for the rest of the month is to only take out in cash the amount for our personal spending money (because I really don’t care to track it!) and track everything else through the debit account.

Here is the break down for the remainder of August:
Groceries - $159 (rounded to create a zero based budget)
Restaurant - $100
Gas - $200
Pets - $20 (just in case we need something, but I think we have enough food etc to last)

Pay off Credit Card #2: Still in progress – we look like we will be within a couple hundred of paying the $1540 off!

August Update #1

I have a couple of financial goals set for August.  I want to focus on the financial aspect of our lives this month because that is the only this we can really control.

Here are my two August financial goals:

Stick to Our Budget: Meaning when there is no money left, there is no money left.  No food money left? We aren’t going over and spending money eating out. No gas money, well we are going to have to budget that well because 32 kilometers is going to take me a long time if I am going to have to walk to work!

Pay off Credit Card #2: This is going to be a tough goal considering hubby added another $230 to his visa for tickets he bought me for our anniversary.  Very sweet, but very not in the budget. We are going to have to really scrimp and save to pay off the credit card this month, hopefully having extra food and gas money at the end of the month we can use towards the credit card.

The good news is I started working full time at the end of July after working part time for 6 months.  The bad news is there was a problem with payroll when I switched to full time and my first pay check this month was smaller than what I had in my budget.  It will be fixed on my next pay check, but because of taxes, it won’t work out quite the same.

This month hasn’t had the best start but I am determined to get it under control!

Here is what our planned spending budget looks like so far:

Food (including grocery and restaurant) $0/$600
Gas $0/$400
Household Goods $50
His Spending Money: $60/$120 (cash)
Her Spending Money $60/$120 (cash)
Pets: $81.77/$100

Debt Free Take Two

I have not blogged in a really, really long time. Unfortunately we had some major medical issues in our house and it's been a lot to deal with. After two surgeries, my husband is on the mend. Unfortunately, we are also still dealing with our fertility issues but have made progress and have started treatments.

We also managed to pay off our $12 000 line of credit and keep our credit cards paid off, until earlier this year when we both were off work because of my husbands surgery. We also decided to move this year and are in the process of building a house. Our down payment is on our line of credit until we sell our current house.

We took Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University, and we are going "Gazelle Intense" this time!

In July this is where we started:

Credit Card#1: $500

Credit Card#2: $1350

Line of Credit#1:$5800

Line of Credit#2:$11800

Car Loan:$25800

We managed to complete Dave Ramsey's baby step #1 - $1000 emergency fund and pay off Credit Card #1.

My goal for August is to pay off Credit Card#2 but it might be a bit of a tight squeeze because we still have to make minimum payments on everything else.

It feels good to be back in the saddle and having a plan!!