July Budget update & August Budget

July is officially over in 3 days. We did amazing. Halfway through I felt like we got our butts kicked and we weren't making much progress but here's a quick recap of what we did in July:

• Paid off Great Lakes Student Loans. We started 2011 (Well in February is when I started tracking our snowball) with a balance of $3380 and we paid that off in 6 months. That feels amazing!
• Stayed in budget, with a few slips but nothing that made us break the bank and we even got to enjoy a RSL game thanks to Mike's boss. That was fun times!
  
• Paid 6 additional car payments on my car. SIX ADDITIONAL PAYMENTS!!! I'm kind of speechless with this one.
• Since the year has started we have paid $6600 towards our debt. Thanks to tax returns, a very generous grandma and cutting our savings back to the $1k emergency fund. At this rate we could potentially be out of debt in 4 years. My goal is 3 years. I honestly think we can do this if we stick to it.
• We had about $400 extra dollars in our budget to throw at our debt. This came from overestimating the cost of somethings and underestimating our paychecks. (It's a little sneaky, but it makes me feel better to see that we made more than I think we will).
• I also looked into Life Insurance quotes. It's morbid to think about, but if anything should ever happen to one of us, we need to make sure the other one is taken care of. I'm thinking by the end of the year we'll have policies in place and that will be taken care of.
• I canceled 2 credit cards that had zero balances and we were just holding on to. One was Kohl's and the girl was like "you know you'll be missing out on extra savings opportunities". My response: "I know". And I'm not even that upset about it. I was spending money at Kohl's cause I had a coupon or because they were offering Kohl's Cash, not because we were in need of something. Good riddance!

August's budget is done and we have a ton of $$ left over. There's 5 Tuesdays in the month so Mike gets 1 extra paycheck. That's going straight towards my car. We have it over half paid now and we got it in Nov 2008. But we did refinance it a year later for a better rate and a lower payment. So we're right on track with that one. Well....we're ahead I guess, but you know what I mean. I do need to add Christmas money into each budget and start buying the supplies for all the gifts I want to make. Better to start now than be in a mad rush come December, ya know!

I just wish I could skip ahead 3 years and be out of debt. Or better yet, jump back 3 years and start doing this then. But I'm very grateful that we're both employed and able to provide for our family and that we are finally starting to take control of our finances.