We have officially graduated from Dave Ramsey's
Financial Peace University! But that means we are now on our own without the support group that we found in our class. Nevertheless, we are sticking to our
Mission to Financial Freedom. Last month, we were able to
save over $2,000, which was over $1,000 more than we had expected to save.
March was our second full month on the MFF plan, and I must admit that I was not as successful this month with keeping the cash envelopes going, but I'm definitely going to make the effort for April.
For March our
goals were:
Put at least $2,000 in savings.Pay off one student loan bill @ ~$4,300.Be on or under budget for the month.- Finish and submit our taxes early. - In progress
Overall, I'd say that we were pretty successful at reaching our financial goals for the month. Now, we just have to get our taxes submitted in the next two weeks!
Budgetwise, we were
almost right on budget with most categories, but we were not as disciplined as in February. Alexander the Great had a fantastic month and earned even more than expected, but my paychecks were less than expected because I didn't realize how much would be withheld for taxes. Oops! Overall though, we still came out ahead on the budget! Yay!
We were
over budget in the following areas:
- Groceries - my nemesis. ($11 over)
- Household and Personal Care - I got some amazing deals at CVS, but the out-of-pocket was more than I had budgeted. ($37 over)
- Restaurants - Alexander the Great took the kiddos out a few times while I was in Indiana for a conference during the last weekend in March. ($26 over)
- School Lunch ($13 over)
- Natural Gas - Our budget amount was adjusted up. Darn! ($11 over)
- Gas/Fuel - Probably explained by my impromptu trip to Kansas. ($42 over)
- Pharmacy - AKA Lice Treatment. Gross. ($25 over)
But, we were under budget in a few areas as well:
- Cable/Internet - We got a new deal this month, which decreased our bill by $10. ($10 under)
- Clothing - No purchases, so $20 goes into the sinking fund for clothing! It's garage sale season, so I'm hoping to pick up a few more things before Baby Girl arrives. ($20 under)
- Doctor Bills - I'm pretty sure this will go up next month, but this month, we ended up paying $22 less than we thought. ($22 under)
- Optometrist - Insurance ended up covering all of Miss Coco's optometrist appointment AND glasses. ($500 under)
- Life Insurance - We'll be starting with our life insurance in April instead of March. ($75 under)
- Daycare - ($20 under)
- Entertainment - ($22 under)
We also added money to our sinking funds:
- $50 to car repair and maintenance
- $50 to car taxes and taxes
- $40 to pet supplies
- $75 to gifts
- $20 to clothing
Thanks to our savings goals for the past three months, we have fully funded our $1,000 emergency fund, expected expenses for Baby Girl's arrival in June (prayers that there are no complications), insurance for Baby Girl until my new job starts in August, and moving expenses for the big move to South Carolina this summer. It's so nice to know that those things are already taken care of. We've also been able to set aside funds to start paying down debt after Baby Girl Harvey arrives! In March, we saved over $3,000 towards these goals!
It feels amazing to see the amount in our savings account continue to increase each month...even more than expected in some cases! But I'm also so very excited to start the debt paydown process in a few months. I can't wait to see those debt snowball balances start to go down, down, down!
You can read more about our Mission to Financial Freedom
HERE.
Thanks to PicMonkey for awesome photo editing online!
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