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Monday, November 4, 2013

update on our road to be debt-free

I've been pretty open about our road to become totally debt-free. I need to give everyone an update on our progress.
 
Jonah (8 months old at the time) attending his 1st family budget meeting!
 
So...a re-cap.
We are doing Dave Ramsey's 7 baby step program. We became debt-free but the house in Feb of 2011 (baby step 2). We had our 3-6 month emergency fund in place in Feb of 2012 (baby step 3). After that we started saving for Jonah's birth, I call that baby step 3b(baby).  I made that one up! Then we started saving cash for a "newer" car, and I will call that baby step 3c(car). I made that up too! Then, Kyle got a new job and we transferred his retirement over to a Roth IRA. We had to pay taxes on that. I will call that baby step 3d(duh), yup made that up.  We'd rather pay the taxes now, while the money has not grown, than to pay the taxes when we retire when the money has grown and we are in a bigger tax bracket. Look at me talking like I know what I am talking about! I've learned a lot!
 
THEN...
Life happened.
We've had things pop up that we've had to pay for. I am SO thankful for our emergency fund. I won't bore you with too many details, but I will name a few things that happened.
 
Kyle ate some ice and broke a tooth. Sounds harmless, but it ended up costing us $3,000. That is some expensive ice.
 
Our cars are older (2002) and we've had to maintain those...
 
Forced home repairs happened...
 
Just stuff happened!
 
So the bad news is that we are having to rebuild this emergency fund. Kyle found another retirement fund from an old job that he rolled over to a Roth. Now we save for that too. We are having baby # 2 and we save for that.
 
The good news... it was NOT stressful. We didn't have to worry about where the money was coming from. It was nice to just write a check and be done.
 
Sometimes I get frustrated that our wheels are just turning. Then I have to step back and take another look at how far we've come. Seriously, I'm mad because we had to use some of our emergency fund? Really Angie?? There are people out there living paycheck-to-paycheck. People that have debt up to their eyeballs. And here I am pouting that we had to use our SAVED CASH? We have worked so hard to get to this point and I need to be proud! Reality check! I'm sure a lot of people would love to have this problem!!
 
Even though we've had to take some steps back, we are still doing awesome!
 
Our goal is to own our house. We want zero debt as soon as possible!
 
If it means that we drive our 2002 model cars for 2 or 3 more years until we have the cash to pay for a newer car, then so be it. We are in this together.
 
Why I love my husband. He sent me a text that read...
"Budget meeting when Jonah goes to bed?"
 
WE.CAN.DO.THIS!!!
 
 

june happenings and 8 month re-cap

Here I go again, trying to play catch-up.
Here is Jonah when he was 8 months old. It was this past June.
And here is a re-cap of what all happened in June.
 
To start off the month, we had to take J to the ED because he bonked his head in the pack-n-play.

He threw up 2 times so I called his doc. She made me take him in.

I really thought he was fine. His eyes were not dialated, didn't lose conscienceness, and was not sleepy. He was fine....but I did what I was told. And they said he was fine, $200 later. Better safe than sorry.
 
Here are his weekly photos...
 
growing...

and growing...

growing some more

so big!
 

 
ready for church!

 
Friday fun days!
I am off on Fridays so we go and meet friends for lunch!
 
I loved to make J's food.

He loved my spinach

Kyle and I had a date night to an event to honor the Olive Branch mayor so Besty came over to keep J.

Well look, here is Betsy and J hanging out in Copper-Young.
 
Kyle went out of town the weekend of Father's Day.

We got him this cute poster and the trip with the guys for a gift. You're welcome!
 

Jonah, my shopping buddy!
 
 We went to Ele's 3rd bday party.
 

Jonah (Eli too!) had his 1st public transportation ride on the trolley downtown.
 

Jonah and Eli having a serious conversation.
 

 We also went to middle Mississippi for AnnLea's birthday party
Aunt Leah brought Lexie so Jonah had fun! Ride little Lexie go to town!
 
In jail.....
Mom, why are you in jail?

summer time, swim time!
 
Jonah had his 1st swim time....it was more like bath time to him!
 
 
lunch after chruch

a nice summer evening having dinner outside!
 


Jonah started planking. It is funny because Kyle and I were doing it as well. 
baby planks.
 
Then he started crawling!

Then he started crawling on June 13th!
He also started pulling to his knees.
He had his 1st Sam's trip with daddy.
Then he started pulling to stand.
He slept a full 12 hours one night.
Also loved my homemade collard greens and spinach!