Financially Fit Friday

“When real faith grips you, you develop a mind-set that looks for the best in everything, refuses to give up, finds a way around or through every obstacle, and presses on to victory.”
- Norman Vincent Peale

Have you started a money makeover? What are you planning on paying CASH for? What bill are you paying off? Share a bit of your story! No story is too small to share! Real life stories keep Carrie motivated. Catch up on Our Story to see how far we’ve come.

Emergency Fund - $1000 – Stocked

House Fund – Goal $20,000.00 by 3/31/2013. The house we put an offer in fell through, so we are starting from scratch. I have a new drive to work like crazy and stock pile more savings! We have paid off 1/2 our medical bills and will be reimbursed for them over then next 6 weeks now. Tuition is due at the end of February (hope to use part of our tax return for that). Otherwise, we can start putting all our money back into our House Fund!

According to the bank, we have all we need for our down payment (5% as of Feb 1st) and all the other fees and escrow money. So from here on out it's all extra money to use to fix the new house up or to put a bigger down payment (which is what we're going for).

• Deposited $6.63 in spare change
• Deposited $10 from a work bonus
• Deposited 62c in interest
• Deposited $25 from leftover gas money (I had a 50c/gallon coupon, so I didn't need as much gas money this week!)
• Deposited $19.10 from Endorse
• Deposited $0 in leftover income.  We had to take a bit out of our House Fund to pay off our mechanic bills :(  From here on out I fully expect no more bills!  lol
• Withdrew $1196.05 to pay off mechanic and pay kids' tuition.  (Only one more medical bill to pay off!  I'm tired of all our extra income going towards bills, especially 3 mechanic trips in 3 weeks!  But still thankful to have the money, even if it's not what we wanted to spend it on!)
• Currently Saved $7,753.53

The following are the other loans we currently have, but will put them on the back burner as we save for a house bigger than a 2-bedroom for our family of SIX! We plan on keeping the duplex we currently own, and renting out the side we currently live in, thus earning more money each month that will pay these off for us

Hubby’s Student Loan as of 10/01/2011 $9395

• Outstanding Balance is $8,658.31

My Student Loan as of 10/01/2011 $6480

• Outstanding Balance is $5,937.74

Family Loan $3000 – I was told to keep this and put this towards a new house, since the person doesn’t need this money right now. Bonus