Completely New Experience

[Impish]

I've never, in my adult life, had this experience before.

 

For the first time ever, my bills are paid, and I have money in my savings account. :svengo:

 

Wolf, for the first time in our marriage, has agreed to a budget and stuck to it!!!

 

He's always talked about a budget, but never before actually stuck to it. He has a really hard time with impulse control when it comes to money, and being able to put consequences with actions. In his defense, this comes from having FASD. I'm so proud of him for sticking to our budget! :party:

Here's *my* temptation: I have enough in the savings acct to wipe out a credit card completely. (This isn't an overwhelming amt of $. My total consumer debt is less than $1500). I'm mentally smacking my hands and focusing on building an emergency fund. I overpay on the cc every month, and by doing that, don't get charged interest.

 

Its still really tempting though.

[mommaduck]

My husband would pay off the cc immediately if he could.

[Lovedtodeath]

Good job! :party:

 

We have decided to stop paying more toward our second mortgage and focus first on our emergency fund and then college and retirement investments. Waiting until that second mortgage is paid off seems like a really bad idea.

 

I must agree that we would pay off the cc though.

[bugs]

Good job! Welcome to the first steps of financial freedom. It's a beautiful thing.

 

(I'd keep $1000 in your emergency fund, then keep picking away at that cc. My 2 cents.)

[Impish]

My reason for not paying off the cc is two fold: Dave Ramsey, and that as long as I overpay monthly, I'm charged no interest. If I was paying interest, then yeah, I'd probably pay it off.

[bugs]

Love that Dave Ramsey! He cracks me up too. We went to FPU and I felt it was my weekly comic relief (besides learning lots).

[Mejane]

Hooray for budgets! (Wish we could stick to ours...)

[Impish]

Well, that figures. :glare:

 

Opened a bill this am (after posting, of course :lol:) to discover I had a really large credit with them. Further investigation showed that I had sent my gas company their $, AND the electric/water company's $ as well. Not to mention that I just sent them another payment this am, an over estimate of what the next bill would be.

 

*sigh*

 

I'm such a Doof. :lol:

 

On the positive side, I called and the bank reversed the payment I made this am, and NOW I've paid off all the bills. I'm amazed that we still have lights. The power/water co gets really cranky when you skip a month's bill. :tongue_smilie:

[Peela]

It feels so good, doesnt it?

I still get a high regularly when I see that we are on top of our bills and spending, and saving as well. That kind of grey , desperate feeling of buying things on the credit card online (my weakness) is no match for the high of actually being on top of it all and saying NO to something because the money isn't there right now. It is so empowering! DH wasnt the leak around here- I was.

 

Thing is, we have some big bills coming up next year. Our daughter got into a course that is costing $9000 for the year, which is much more than a year of university normally is- but the course is so good and gets her into 2nd year university. Its a lot of money for us and we have promised to pay this year (after that her university fees are hers to deal with).

Also, a year ago when our finances were looking REALLY good, dh promised to take Dd to Paris for a week for her 16th b'day. She is an artist- this was a beautiful gift to her. But soon after he made the promise, our finances did a dive. He has just booked the ticket now. They are going. But it is a strain on us. I am sure DR wouldn't approve! But we both felt it wouldn't be right to break the promise he made to her.

 

However....because the rest of our finances are in order...it IS doable and I give it my blessings.

[Impish]

As I mentioned in my other thread, this is the first year in a LONG time that dh isn't facing seasonal layoffs. Its one of those, "I didn't realize how bad that felt til it was gone" situations. That grey feeling, as you aptly put it. Horrible.