Financial update

Well, as the first quarter of the year rolls to a close, I'm reassessing how well we have been doing as a family with our financial goals.

At the beginning of the year, we decided to start paying off some things. I took over the majority of the bills and have been making a big effort to get things in control.

Here is where we stand at the end of the first three months...

We have paid off our Lowes credit card (and then quickly had to purchase a refrigerator since ours went out a month after paying it off). So essentially, we paid off our Lowes card twice.

We paid off our Best Buy credit card.

We paid off our furniture card from when our bed broke last year.

We paid off our Dell computer card from when our computer crashed last year and we got another one for me for school.

This month, we paid off a large medical bill from my surgery last year.

So all in all, we have paid off 5 bills totaling roughly $6,500 in 3 months. That is hugely freeing! I am really happy about the positive steps we are making.

In addition, we made a goal to be actively adding to our kids' tuition accounts each paycheck, to add to an emergency savings account each paycheck, and to add to my tuition account each paycheck. We have done all three.

The emergency fund got accessed already when Jansen got sick last week and we had to take him to Urgent Care, so we don't have as much in there as I would have liked. I was hoping to have tuition for the summer saved in that account by the time the Spring semester ends in May. I still have a month left to save and I need about another $150 to cover the cost. We have to pay for my nursing school out of pocket each semester so I have to keep saving! BUT, all of those accounts have more money in them than when we began in January, so that is another positive.

We still have many bills to pay off. Next we are working on paying off Caleb's braces. I have 2 more credit cards and Josh has 2 more. We have one bank loan, two vehicles, and a travel trailer to pay off. Baby steps!

My goal for the end of June is to have Caleb's braces paid off, my 2 credit cards paid off, and have double the amount in our emergency fund and my tuition fund.

My goal for the end of September is have one of Josh's cards paid off, my Fall tuition paid in full, and $1,000 in the emergency fund.

By the end of the year, I hope to have Josh's last credit card paid off, my final tuition payment for Spring on lock, another savings account opened in addition to our emergency fund, and then we can turn our attention to our loan, vehicles, and camper.

Financial independence is coming our way!