This is the last day of the month. Also, the first month without a house payment hanging over my head. It feels very surreal and we are very grateful. I'm not really sure my feet have come down yet.
When we moved here, Jamie and I had decided that when things were better financially, that we wanted to be free of all our debt. We want to be good stewards of what God has granted us with. I think that being on a more restricted budget the past several years has taught us the difference between "needs" and "wants" and we spend accordingly.
I've been a careful budgeter for years now anyways. It is not unusual to see me every couple of days with my budget (in Excel, where every dollar is allocated), my checkbook (MS Money), and the bank account all popped up on the computer at once. The kids even know to leave me be for a few minutes while I'm doing this process, which is kind of funny in its own way, but also great for them to see.
Now that the house is out of the way, I tweaked our budget accordingly. We are hoping to be free of all debt in 2 years (more or less). It depends on how much "life" happens between now and then, but at least we have a game plan and I'm strangely excited. We are fortunante to not really owe on so much.
We have exactly 4 debts that we are currently repaying (no credit cards). None of which I'm ashamed of, but they are essentially robbing us each and every month. Debt is not really a "good" thing (an affordable mortgage aside) and my viewpoint has kind of changed about that over time. I think that we have sort of been desensatized as a society to just accept this as a way of life to have "things".
So, as we begin this next chapter of our lives, we do so prayerfully and contently. We know that God is going to bless us through this process. After all, it is all his anyways.
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