The Cary Life

Goals for 2009

2009-01-05T13:48:00.000-08:00

Nate and I are praying about many things for 2009! We know the Lord has great things in store for us and maybe great changes, but we must be patient.

Since getting married a year and a half ago, we have accomplished more financially then I ever dreamed possible. Here is the run down:

Dec. 18, 2007--Final payment on our school loans. We paid almost $14,000 in the first 6 months of marriage. Read our story.
May 2008--6 months of Emergency Fund fully funded.
Dec. 31, 2008--Spent under $900 for groceries and toiletries during 2008. Read the totals at my other blog Bargain Banana. We are trying to not spend any money on food during January except for milk. Check out our progress here.

Right now we are in the middle of saving 20% (of an amount we shall keep a secret) to put down on our first home. We are so close and our goal is to have that amount saved by the end of March 2009. We have been saving since May of 2008 so we are ready to be done with the step and moving on.

After we finish our goal of the 20% downpayment, our next goal for 2009 is to put 15% of our income into a Roth IRA. It would be great to max out at least one Roth IRA by the end of the year.

Dave Ramsey Decals

2008-12-17T08:53:00.000-08:00

October Cruise 2008

2008-10-21T10:54:00.000-07:00

We just went on our second cruise of 2008. It was awesome. Super relaxing and so much fun. We felt like we were on another honeymoon. We really do love spending 24/7 with each other. God has blessed me with the most amazing best friend/husband.

Apple Picking at Sky Top Orchard 2008

2008-10-02T13:06:00.001-07:00

We found beautiful Fuji, Gala, and Granny Smith apples. There were many other varieties but those are our favorites. It was such a great date for the two of us. We have gone together the last couple of years and always have a blast climbing trees and eating apples in the orchard. This year there were even homemade apple doughnuts straight out of the fryer. They were soooooo good. The prices were 1 for $1, 6 for $4, and 12 for $7. We also picked up 2 gallons of apple cider (that we shared with friends that night) and have an apple slushie with our doughnuts.

Paying with Cash Again!

2008-09-23T20:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Nate's car broke down because one of the belts fell off. We had just talked this weekend about the fact that it was time to get a new water pump and timing belt. Since my car had just had the same repairs (read that story here) we knew it would cost around $500. No worries thought because we have our emergency fund and a car fund that we put money into each month. Nate was able to save us over $16 because he paid in cash. The owner of the auto shop even thanked him for using cash in this day and age of plastic.

Read this post to find out more about our financial journey.

We Are Finally Having a Yard Sale!

2008-09-16T06:20:00.001-07:00

Nate and I have known each other for 3 years. Neither one of us has had a yard sale during this time. We came into our marriage with TONS of stuff! Everyone blessed us so much with so many new items for our wedding, that it is time to get rid of the old. The above picture only begins to show how much stuff we need to clear out.

If you live in the Greenville Area, our yard sale is Saturday, Sept 20th in Simpsonville. Send me an e-mail at bargainbananablog@yahoo.com for the address or check the Greenville News on Friday or Saturday.

UPDATE: We made over $184 at our yard sale.

Paying With Cash!

2008-05-09T07:18:00.001-07:00

Today we are taking my car in to have the major 200,000 mile maintenance done. We called several weeks ago to find out the cost. We asked if we received a discount for paying with cash instead of a credit card. We will save 5%!!!!!

We are just so excited to be on this new financial road of paying for things in cash. It was also be great to have a peace of mind that my car is not going to break down because of its high mileage.

Moving On to Baby Step 4

2008-05-02T11:29:00.000-07:00

It is official! As of today May 2, 2008, our Emergency Fund is fully funded. This is until an emergency occurs and we will have to fill it back up. WooHoo!

Easter Egg Fun

2008-03-26T18:39:00.001-07:00

My husband and I had a great time with our Easter Egg dye!

We Are Debt Free

2008-02-08T09:40:00.000-08:00

I decided for my first post to talk about the biggest event in our lives that occured over a month ago. We became debt free! It was such an amazing day for us. We had set a goal to pay off the debt (school loans) by our first anniversary. Little did we know that God would allow us to reach that goal six months early. We now do not have any school loans, car or credit card debt, and every single item in our apartment is 100% paid for. What an incredible feeling! Most of you know that we did Dave Ramsey's baby step plan. We have both read Total Money Makeover and these very simple steps have completely changed the way we think about money and how to spend it.

For the seven years after college and before marriage I was definitely a full-time spender. I went into my wedding day with basically nothing but a bonus check I had received and put in savings a couple weeks before. My checking account was zero. I had thankfully worked really hard during our engagement and had paid off every dime of credit card debt two days before the wedding. This was before I had started Dave Ramsey, but I knew that taking credit card debt into the marriage was not a great way to start. My husband has never had credit card debt but did have a very large school loan. So the two became one and the debt became "our debt" and I was thrilled to join him on the excitement of paying it down every month.

Each month we would calculate how much we thought we would pay on the loan, and every month the Lord provided so much more. It was amazing. We decided to not spend money on clothes or other items we didn't really need. We set a grocery budget, clipped coupons like crazy, and watch the ads for all the sales at the grocery. Grocery night became date night and it was a blast to search every aisle for the deals. I can't tell you how many dozens of items we took home that we didn't pay anything for because we found it on sale and had a coupon. Now that is some great fun!

We love being married, being debt free, and still coupon clip like crazy and I think we always will. We are on baby step 3 of Dave's plan which is to save 3-6 months expenses in savings for a rainy day (and they always come sometime). We can't wait to start saving for a house and investing for retirement but we are not there yet.

Update: As of December 9, 2008 we have the 6 months worth of expenses sitting in the bank and we are over 75% toward our goal of saving 20% for a down payment. God has been so good and we have learned so much. Our lifestyle has changed forever.

We are definitely better than we deserve. God is so good all the time.