Charging Ahead Full Steam

Only 6 weeks left! From one standpoint it feels like Project Money would never end. The blogs, the videos, the facebooking, the financial coach meetings, the interviews. From another standpoint it feels like we are just getting started. The debt reduction, the savings for vacation, and our long-term savings plans (retirement, college). 

There have been several ups and downs as well over the last six months. The first month felt like we weren't doing anything as we were asked to save all receipts but not change any spending habits. Then magically after month 2 we started seeing our savings and checking account numbers going up. After several months of putting extra money away we seemed to stall out and didn't have as much money left over each month. Jenna reminded us that we didn't have any extra income coming in from side jobs but that we were still doing great and staying on budget. I actually look forward to our meetings with Jenna every month. She always seems to be able to pick out the good in what we have accomplished so far and give us a jump start every month. 

Last month she gave us a print out of our debt payoff snowball effect. We can be totally debt free (including paying off our house) in 11.5 years! We couldn't believe it. We are now looking for ways to come up with extra money to payoff as much debt as fast as we can. Sheila had a great idea to round up all our baby/toddler stuff and sell it on Craig's list. Two weeks, a rummage sale and a whole lot of work (mostly on Sheila's part), we are $441 richer! We already met our savings goal for Christmas and Max's birthday. Now on to saving for our 10th anniversary trip to Mexico. 

A few weeks ago I was feeling we did every thing we could to help us in Project Money and we were just on cruise control. Now it feels like we are charging ahead full steam to the finish line. Win or lose, we have a lot to be proud of!