June Financial Update

So far I’ve written twice this year specifically about finance. The first time was this post back in February, and the second was this post just last month. I thought that now would be a good time to re-visit our finance goals, you know, with it being the middle of 2013 and all. Wait, is it seriously June already? Holy moly.

Goal #1: Pay off student loan by end of 2014

Update: We are currently still on track to meet this goal, which is pretty exciting because it is our “largest” amount of debt at $5,500.

Goal #2: Pay off credit card/credit line by July of 2014

Update: We’ve had quite a few hiccups on this one. We’ve paid off both the credit card and the credit line…and then subsequently charged more to them. Between having an emergency surgery on a dog, a non-emergency surgery on the same dog, truck repairs, and our pesky impulsive buying habits, well…..let’s just say that with some hard work we will still meet this goal, but it’s going to take some serious cinching.

One thing that we’ve done to help with this is switch back to using cash as much as possible. For some people, this doesn’t work very well…and in some cases it doesn’t work very well for me either. I can’t just carry cash around in my purse indefinitely because if I do, I will eventually spend it on something it was not intended for. So what we’ve been doing is taking out the cash for our groceries the day we get paid and then we buy what we need for the next week that night. I also give both of us a certain amount of cash for lunch for the week and once it’s gone, it’s gone.

This has not exactly been foolproof, but it has helped. Example: yesterday I forgot that we had to eat out for lunch because we were not going to have enough time to cook. Only except we didn’t have enough cash for that. Thank you, credit card for saving the day. But in my defense, I fully plan to pay that $20 back when Roman gets paid this Friday.

For the most part though, having to hand over actual for-real cash has been painful enough for me to re-think a lot of my impulse purchases, and it has helped in cutting down how much we spend on groceries as well.

Goal #3: Go on a second cruise in October

Update: We actually already went on a cruise back in March. So we can call this goal “met”!

Goal #4: Have $3,000 in savings by end of 2014

Update: We actually changed this goal to the end of 2013. Why? Because we’ve realized through Duke’s surgery and our truck repair incident that we really really REALLY have got to save up a healthy emergency fund. An emergency fund saves you from charging $400 to an already-paid-off credit line for a dog’s surgery.

Goal #5: Pay off our couch loan by end of 2014

Update: We are currently still on track to meet this goal as well. Wahoo!

Goal #6: Be 100% debt free by end of 2014

Update: We may or may not actually get to this goal by the target date. Currently, all of our debt is actually scheduled to be paid off by July of 2014-including my car. But we’ve been talking about trading in or selling my car so we can get something a little bigger, so if we do we probably will not be 100% debt-free by December 2014. But honestly, if we can get everything else paid off and keep a healthy savings account, then we can pay extra on the new car payment and get it paid off super early-which is certainly our plan!

The biggest hiccup that we see coming down the line is my impending furlough starting next month. Unfortunately, I am a federal government employee, so I get to endure the 11 furlough days that are being served to pretty much the entire federal workforce. I’ve done the math, and I will be losing $553 out of my net pay during the months of July, August, and September. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about all of this, but I know that God is going to take care of us regardless of whether I get paid or not. We are just really praying that Roman will make enough commission over the next few months to cover my loss in pay, that way we won’t fall behind on our goals-and so far he is on track for this month, so that is really encouraging!

How about you? Got any big financial goals you are working towards? Anyone else really hate those “sudden” financial situations that seem to pop up at the least appropriate times? And who else thinks it’s too early to be June already?? Feel free to share in the comments!