Managing Money

This is the area we have much room for growth. The question is, are we seeking to grow? I believe we are. Last week I mentioned how Jason and I are writing everything down. We have been very careful to put everything down. It has been eye opening. If you have never done this, I would highly suggest it. Just for one week, we found so many places we spent money but never took notice of it.

For instance, we usually put somewhere between eight to ten dollars every Wednesday for dinner at church. We are getting to where our eaters are bigger and we actually need to increase this number. It's an amount we are happy to spend; we love dinner with our church family on Wednesday. It was just never listed in our budget. So we found forty dollars we spend that we hadn't put in our budget.

I was right last week. The quick trips to the store really do add up for us. I'm going to have to work on this.

For this week, saving money will come from sticking around the house. We have been so so busy lately I don't think it will be much of a sacrifice to do this. We have more than enough to have a family come over to our house for dinner and games if we choose. But a weekend without running around will be so helpful to our budget.

This week I also have the job of figuring out our taxes. It's not too difficult, but always an education for me. Jason has also reworked the number of dependents he claims. We hadn't done that since the birth of Harper. It was time.

Slow and steady wins the race. We are getting there. Our goals for the year. Actually, for before Jason graduates from seminary the May after this one.

Be completely debt free except for our rental home
No car payments
Increase our emergency fund
Retirement started
College started
Increase our giving

After this month, I think I will have a clearer picture of when that will happen. I will be grateful to be out of graduate school debt free. I know we can do it. It will just take some sacrifice on our parts.