Bills

I am in a very strange state right now. For some odd reason, I almost look forward to opening the mail slot and finding a bill!

Now, not every bill is a joy to me, but there is less hatred in my heart when I find them. The main culprit for my twisted state of mind - our budget. Way back in January, we took a ‘money’ class through our church, Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey. It taught about budgeting, something I had tried before, but always from a perspective of looking back to see where the money went, not planning it out ahead of time. We tried it. The net effect: we went from pulling about $500 a month out of savings each month to having an extra $800 at the end of each month.

And that’s why I enjoy getting the bills. Once I have them, I can fill in another slot on my budget forms, do a little math, and find out how much extra we have. So far, all our extra is being put to good uses; we now own Mollie’s car ($9k paid in 6 months) and have a little set aside for the month when Mollie won’t be getting a paycheck. After that comes the long task of paying off the house early. Again, I’ve done a little math; that could save around $70,000 in interest payments! (For a little perspective, it would take me working 4-5 years to net that kind of cash!)

Now, we haven’t been near perfect in sticking to our budget. For example, this month we won’t be making a second deposit towards the emergency fund due to some minor splurging. But on a whole, our money-life has become much less stressful. It may be a little frustrating when we run out of entertainment money five days into a two week schedule because of ‘Free Pie Day’ at Bakers Square, but being able to see the improvements we have already made in our finances and looking to the promise of future freedoms makes it worth while.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go buy some unbudgeted Texas Toast so I can make a very late breakfast.