Kicking Debt's A$$

   Ugh, debt! I hate it so much! When I think about my monthly payments and that it should take me 7 or more years to pay the remaining balance I get sick. Seven years of paying $300 a month? No thank you! Now, I know my situation is nowhere near the worst out there, but it's my reality and I don't like it. So, this year

Goal #3

is to kick my debt in the behind! I have so many things I'd rather be doing with $300 a month than sending it to Sallie Mae. You know, like traveling and having fun. Sadly, the only way to get my debt to move out is to throw more money at it. Some of you might ask "why would you do that?" Well, the way I see it, paying more to my student loans over a short period of time and paying less in interest is more beneficial to me than just letting that monthly payment hang over my head until I am 30. 30!!!

   My plan for the year is to throw any and all extra money I have each month to my student loans and instead of paying off around $3,000 I hope to at least double that amount. I also plan on ditching cable in July when my contract is up and that should get around 50 more dollars to send to my loans. Who needs it when you can have Netflix? (I make that sound a lot easier then I know it will be!) Throughout the year I plan on sharing different ways I'm cutting costs and at the end of each month sharing how much extra I was able to pay. Wish me luck guys! I know this won't be easy.

   Do you have any cost saving strategies?

*Check out Goal #1 & #2*

Why I have an Emergency Fund

   Having an older vehicle for the past six years, sadly the picture above became a common one to me. Jimmy (yeah I named my Jimmy, Jimmy. Very creative I know) has stranded me multiple times over the years in quite a variety of places. Always in the middle of nowhere. Multiple times in New Jersey farmland, a small town in Tennessee and the Everglades here in Florida. Just to name a few. Anyway, having a reliably unreliable vehicle can get pretty costly really quickly.

   I used to drive around constantly worried about when my next break down would be and how in the world I would pay for it. After going through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University I learned about Dave's suggested 7 Baby Steps and number 1 is a $1,000 emergency fund. $1,000 is a lot of money to someone like me who doesn't really make a lot, but thankfully I had been saving up for some furniture and misc clothing that could be relabeled to be my emergency fund.

   Now, that was no fun for the future shopping spree I was planning, but after Jimmy did this a week ago, I was sure glad I could take him to a repair shop and not be too freaked out about where the money was going to come from. Good thing too because the repairs came to about $500!! Oh Jimmy, now the game plan is to save that $500 again and refill my emergency fund. After it saving me a bundle of stress I can't imagine not having an emergency fund.

   Any questions about saving money or budgeting? Any tips you want to share with me?

No Spend October Update

 So, I would say No Spend October was a success, but also a huge eye opener! Let me break it down for you:

• With doing a zero-based budget like Dave Ramsey suggests, I've been doing this for years, but this time I put my bills first and then cut everything else out. And I mean everything!!
• So that meant the cat, entertainment, home, and photos categories got the boot.
• To cover those expenses I estimated what I might have to spend every week and set myself an allowance of $20.
• This really made me conscious of what was absolutely necessary to spend money on! That cute purse from Target? Gotta save up. The new Taylor Swift album? Patience is a virtue! A new fall sweater? Not a need.

   At the end of the month when I balanced my budget again I was pleasantly surprised that I saved $154!! And I had $30 left over from my weekly spending money that I just left in my wallet to add to the new weeks allowance. Yay!!! Win. And good thing too because I had a few birthday presents to but so I really wasn't able to save up that much. Looks like No Spend November will be a thing! Christmas is coming you know. I'm hoping to be able to spend almost nothing for November and December so I can survive the holidays and then continue into the new year so I can officially start my journey paying off my debt (student loans) EARLY!

   If you have any questions about budgets or living frugally let me know! I'm an open book :)

No Spend October

   Stephen and I started Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University a couple of weeks ago and in an effort to get our finances in order we've agreed to not spend any extra money for the whole month of October. Of course we have to still spend money on all of our required payments but the almost always over budget entertainment category will be shut down. We are really excited to see how much we can save in one month. We'll let you know how it goes!

Any advice for sticking to budgeting goals?