progress so far...

I'm happy to report that since we started our saving and debt killing journey, we have been making much more progress than we ever have before. Staying on a cash budget is proving more difficult than we thought with Devin being away. However, since we started we have a baby emergency fund of $1000 saved (we have never saved that much ever!), and have saved a great chunk of money for a trip to Las Vegas to watch my brother graduate this summer. (I know we could kill a bunch of debt super fast by NOT going on the trip, but frankly, I need to see some sunshine, Devin needs to get away from that boat, and I don't want to pass up the opportunity to watch my little brother graduate.)
I have paid off one credit card completely and am taking chunks off the next one. All in all, we have paid off over $1100 in debt since starting this journey. It's been over 3 months since we started this so maybe this doesn't seem like a huge chunk to you, but trust me, if you knew how much we made, this is amazing. (and if you are really nosey and want to know, military pay charts are public.) I would have never thought I would be able to say in 3 months I had found that much extra to put towards savings and debt. Now lately, I have been making more at my job due to some management changes, but most of this we had accomplished before the management shift. I will get to kill a second credit card by the end of this month. WOO-HOO!
I think my mom is sick of me talking about savings and debt every time we talk on the phone, so now you get to hear about it...whoever you are.

Resolution

Photo credit: ECU Financial Services

 On Chianne's last post, she mentioned that we have one resolution, which is to attack debt head on this year. So far, we've started to make progress. This week, I made a cash budget, and Chianne made a spreadsheet from my budget that does automatic calculations, which I don't understand how she did it, but it works, and that's awesome. The budget that was made has everything on it, I mean everything, from play money, tithing and even when the USCG moves us, to gas and food, etc. It's going to be a big task, but with devotion, and accountability, we will be able to complete the task ahead. God's really been convicting us in that area, and we honestly don't have so much debt that we can be excused from our behavior. We only have $8,500 in debt (including the car note and Chianne's student loan, which equal well over half of that amount), we really think we could pay it off this year, God willing of course.
We have been reading The Total Money Makeover, watching Financial Peace University on DVD (which was thankfully given to us), and drawing encouragement from some friends of ours who just started their own website Mt. Debtverest.
We are currently trying to build our initial emergency fund, and then we can start attacking the debt. There was an error in my pay from several months ago, so this week my check will be bigger than usual, and that money is all going to the to the emergency fund.
Please keep us in your prayers that we will have discipline and stay faithful in this.

-Devin.