Feeling Better about the Budget

I've been feeling pretty defeated lately over our budget, over letting our budget fall to the back burner. It's been in the nagging at me lately and I just couldn't shake the feeling that I was just failing at budgeting. So to gain some perspective I pulled the numbers. Where we were in other years compared to where we are this year. This difference is scary...where we've been shows me where we never want to be again! I never want to have that much useless debt! I know that while my husband is in school we are investing in our future and money spent during this time is not wasted but an investment in us and in our children. Parents with a college education are more likely to have children with a college education.
So where exactly were we in August 2009? 2010? Today?
well we owed on 2 credit cards, the truck and the ATV. We still are paying on all of these things. However we have not created any new bills and even with Todd is school, we have not created any new student loans. So here's the break down

YEAR TRUCK ATV CC 1 CC 2
2009 16,691 6,375 2,977 3,000

2010 11,263 4,300 2,258 2,400

2011 7,600 2,900 300 2,138

As ashamed as I am that we have used the credit cards AGAIN this year, I know that we've had set backs ($900 of CC 2 was used to visit Todd's dying brother in Missouri - - money well spent). We have no current medical bills and no student loans! That's a good place to be in. Todd will graduate in 2013 (if all goes well between now and then...we all know the saying "best laid plans") and by 2013, I expect to have every penny of this debt paid off!

Over my lunch I was looking at these numbers and really analyzing the difference and at first glance, it doesn't look like much but then I added them all up...totals for each year. In 2009 we had $29,000 in debt, in 2010 we had $20,200 in debt and right now we have $12,938 in debt. So in 2 years we have paid off $16,000 in debt and countless medical bills! That number feels SO good! It renews my faith in my plans and budgeting. And while I know we'll sometimes fall short, and maybe have big set backs that end up costing over $2,000, I know that God will provide and that we'll pull through this season in our life. It's a very temporary season and we're just doing the best we can to make memories with the limited budget.

Todd this semester is driving to Findlay every day. That's a lot of gas used and bigger baby sitting fees than ever. We aren't really sure how to budget just yet but we are trusting that God will take care of us. We know that he's investing in us too and is being patient waiting for us to become a real asset to him. We can see Him working in our life, molding our hearts.