Working Towards Financial Peace

This upcoming year, my husband and I have decided to get down and dirty and work on knocking out our debt to become debt free. We have worked out a plan and if we have no major speed bumps, fingers crossed, we will be nearly debt free at the end of 2011. Our small debts and van payments will be finished in June and the car will be done in December of this year. Then we can start 2012 finishing off our 2 small school loans. Then we are going to kill the mortgage. The goal is to be completely debt free in about 7 years. It will be hard but well worth it. The vehicles are new enough that they will only need repaired from time to time. The hope is to build up a savings account so that in the far future we can buy cars with cash. Then when we get paid we will only need to pay for utilities.

The peace of mind that should follow will be well worth any sacrifice now. I'm tired of worrying about grocery money, gas money, paying bills on time, etc. This year almost all Christmas gifts given to friends and family were homemade and received great reviews. That saved us from going under farther. I only purchased things for my kids for Santa to give. The result was a very relaxed holiday. I highly recommend it.

I am a huge fan of freecycle. It's a great way to give your unwanted things to those who may need them in the community, and also receive items you, yourself might need. This is all done online and is completely free. No money changes hands. Goodwill is a great place for discounted things you may need, but not necessarily new. I like to buy plastic baby toys at 25 cents each and let my dogs have as chew toys. This is a great deal when you consider the price at a pet store is $5 - $10 per toy. The dog will destroy it either way.

The kids are 8, 10, and 12 and have found making recycled crafts to be great fun. They loved making a cardboard city, see previous blog for more info and pics on that. They like to take old hats and clothes that are stained or torn and redecorate them and turn into fun dress up clothes.

So the overall goal is to be creative, put extra towards the bills, and look to the future!

freecycle website

Cardboard city