Our Money Makeover Progress – July

August 6, 2009 at 2:45 am by | Uncategorized

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Every month I post about my grocery budget. After this past month I am happy to say we are sticking to a $75/wk grocery budget. Now I would like to add our progress for our debt free mission.As I had mentioned in an earlier post, we have decided to work hard to become completely debt free. We are following the advise of Dave Ramsey, author of The Total Money Makeover. Dave has a clear cut method to staying focused and working through each step before you proceed onto the next. His steps are as follows:

7 Baby Steps To Financial Peace
  • Baby Step 1 – Save $1,000 FAST! (small emergency fund)
  • Baby Step 2 – Debt Snowball.
  • Baby Step 3 – Build your Fully Funded Emergency Fund.
  • Baby Step 4 – Save 15% Of Income For Retirement.
  • Baby Step 5 – Save For College.
  • Baby Step 6 – PAY OFF Mortgage!
  • Baby Step 7 – Build Wealth And Give!

I’m happy to report that we have completed Baby Step 1 and are onto Baby Step 2 after only 1 month. Our debt has been reduced by 2%. Now that doesn’t seem like a lot but remember we were also gathering up our $1000 small emergency fund and then working on the debt snowball all in 30 days. And the really good thing is, our debt did not go up, it went down!

We will have to make 1 adjustment to the 7 Baby Steps. Step 5: Save For College. You see we are right in the middle of sending our kids to college so we are a bit very behind. Our save for college becomes part of our Debt Snowball. But you know what, it’s never too late to start.

So after July I’d say I’m pretty happy with our progress. Saved our emergency fund & cut down 2% of our debt. Not a bad way to start.

Note: I am starting a monthly post soon on how to cut expenses in your budget. I’m getting pretty good at it since I spent the month going over my budget with a fine tooth comb. If you have any suggestions or have cut your own expenses in any way (even small cuts are great) post a comment or send me an email so I can add it to the post.

My first way to cut expenses: I bought an insert for my Keurig coffee machine so I can use regular coffee instead of buying K-cups. Saving per year (including purchasing the insert) $128. That’s $10 per month.