Ok here's the scoop about "dumping debt" in February. Again, sorry it's late...these posts will most likely always be a little behind.
If you follow my blog you will have seen that February was a rough month. We lost two people in our lives and it definitely took it's toll on us...in basically all areas. Financially speaking it totally busted our budget, but with God's timing it all worked out. Just like it always does when he's in charge (why is it hard to remember that?)
The reason we went over (by hundreds of dollars) is because of our trip to Corvallis for our friend's funeral. In which I stayed 10 extra days, resulting in additional purchases such as; groceries, Andrew's train ticket back up to Canada, gas bought for both cars since Andrew then headed back down to Oregon the following weekend for military training, outings while in Corvallis and so on and so forth. Of course it was totally worth it and we both agreed with all of this but if you take a look at our paperwork for Feb it looks like a total mess (from a budgeting standpoint). Now, your wondering where Gods grace comes into all of this? Well at the end of January or maybe it was the very beginning of February, we had cashed out all our points from credit cards, (so that we can cancel them and not continue to go into debt). That money was initially tagged to go straight to loans...however it was used for the extra expenses this month required instead, hence Gods timing for cashing out the points was perfect. Thank you for that blessing Lord.
Positive experience this month: First: chatting with a friend and her husband while we were in Oregon, who had originally peaked my interest into Dave Ramsey back in June of 2012. It was fun to see their excitement for us as we explained our goal of being debt free before Andrew turns 30 and we really enjoyed chatting with someone who really understands what we are doing and totally agrees with it.
Second: because we are on a budget we feel we have more control over our money, this allowed us to make a much needed unexpected donation this month. I don't want to go into much detail about the donation but we used some of the extra money that we would have put towards loans, for that donation instead. It was my Husbands generous spirit that guided us to decide to do such a thing and on the amount to give. I'm glad we did it, even though at first my strict nature wanted to see the amount budgeted for loans to actually go towards the loans. I've put this in the "positive category" instead of "unexpected expenses" because it was a blessing to be able to make this donation, and we feel it was only because we are more aware of our finances due to our Total Money Makeover.
Challenges/Unexpected expenses this month: as you read above, our trip to Oregon incurred extra expenses.
Helpful tip from this month: again I can't write a post without mentioning grocery shopping, seeing as that's where I spend most of our money, other than paying bills. I can't believe the difference in buying products when I'm actually paying attention to what I am buying. For example my favorite apple is Honey Crisp....oh they are SO delicious! But at Winco, the last time I was there they were over $3 a pound...when Gala, Braeburn (they seem to rotate) are only $.98 a pound! I had no idea there was such a difference...and the taste isn't that bad, only a small sacrifice to pay to be debt free...haha. Anyway, if you really pay attention while your grocery shopping, you can save lots of money.
