Things are slowly moving forward. Our debt went down about $1200 this month. We have also started contributing to savings. It's very small, but it's a start. It'll actually double this Friday to $120. After June (the personal loan payoff month), I will be putting all of my extra money to savings to build it up a bit. It's controversial since we have so much debt, but DH and I discussed it, and we'd feel more secure having a couple grand saved up before focusing back on debt payoff.
We've decided to wait on all projects for now, but as my brother starts contributing to household expenses and our savings build up a bit quicker, I think we'll try and cash flow the fireplace and tree removal this year.
I'm feeling cautiously optimistic about where we're at. Hopefully, things will continue to improve.
One foot at a time
May 24th, 2017 at 03:25 pm
May 24th, 2017 at 08:17 pm 1495653470
May 25th, 2017 at 12:03 am 1495667008
It is so easy to move into a new home and want to make all the improvements right away. Those that I admire most are those that do a project or two per year (depending on the cost). I watched a neighbor put in flooring one year, the next year they upgraded their front landscaping, and the following year the big project was a patio for the back yard (which they put a small pop up pool on).
May 25th, 2017 at 01:01 pm 1495713689
We definitely have the new homeowners' "I want to overhaul everything!" mentality, but we're trying to be pragmatic. We realize we're here for many, many years, and tackling one or two bigger projects a year is much smarter. These next few years will be mostly getting the yard in order, plus the fireplace. The yard is huge and nice, but will need a lot of work to get it into a place where we can enjoy it in the way that we'd like to be able to.