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Wednesday, May 29, 2013

A Long Overdue Update.... And a Challenge

Staring at a blank screen, more than a year since my last update.

I'd very much like to report that we are now debt-free (or at the very least, in a much better position than we were a year ago) which is why I haven't been updating... but alas, that's not the case.  We're still here, still in debt, and still plugging away.

Some positives first:

1)  We have paid off both car loans, so YAY for that.

2)  We're down to three credit cards with balances, one of which is due to be paid off in a matter of weeks.

3) I am bringing in a bit of money through teaching yoga, and most exciting of all:

4)  We refinanced our house through a new AZ program for people who like us who were so ridiculously upside down on our mortgages.  It has saved us about $700 a month, AND we are no longer upside down!  In fact, our overall net worth is actually in the black for the first time in forever.  One condition of the refi was that we need to stay in the house for another five years, which I've come to terms with.  We never really made it a home, because we never intended to stay here.  But now we are, so a home it shall become.

Finally, after a few months in a row of a lot of expenses - the kind of months where it felt like money was just leaking from our pockets - we decided to take a 30-day "no extra money challenge" in the month of June.  No going out to eat, no "extras", no running to the grocery store if there's something we can already make in our cupboard/fridge/freezer, no new clothes or shoes or anything that's not absolutely necessary.  Just for 30 days.  Partly because I want the challenge of just doing it, and partly because I know that a month of belt-tightening will surely help us get back on track debt-repayment-wise.

So, here we go.  Again.