Blessed We Be

In general we live paycheck to paycheck. I have a chart that tells me exactly what day the bills get paid and with what paycheck they get paid with. I can also tell in each pay period if we are going to be tight on money or have some extra. Yes I am an organized geek. But for the last 4-5 years we have been living very tight, and this geekness has kept us in the black.

It was not uncommon for our finances to be so low that I would wait 3-6 days for payday to come around. Only then did I have enough money to go grocery shopping or put gas in a car. Anyone who lives like this will tell you it's not fun. It was life though, especially with all the financial demands of Squeaker's medical care we just didn't have much choice in the matter.

Over the last year as we have decreased our credit card debt through student loans and a refinance debt reduction loan. So yes we are still carrying debt but with lower monthly payments and much lower APRs. This has opened up our cash so we can stop using credit cards for gasoline and groceries. We don't use our Credit Cards of anything else anymore either. If we don't have the cash we don't buy it. (baring emergencies- Like new tires for the van when one blew out on the interstate)We are also to take some of our freed cash to "snowball" our debt.

Well we still live paycheck to paycheck with a small savings now. We most certainly we can't live a month without a job. Today though we hit a mile stone. We forgot it was payday. For years I looked forward to payday and had every dollar planned and prayed it would all work. Today I was half way through breakfast before I remembered. Trey forgot entirely until I told him I had paid the bills. It's not like there was a ton of money in bank account but there was enough to buy the basics and fill up my van. I didn't even have to think about it. WHAT A BLESSING!!

You may say well you worked hard for it and deserve it. That is true but I know Heavenly Father is looking out for us. He lead Trey to school as a certain time, and we tried several times to get a debt reduction loan until we found one that actually worked for us. It has also helped that Trey has been getting double bonuses from work as a retention bonus.

We still have a long way to go before we are truly debt free but what a relief it is not have make $5 last 6 days. We still have to watch our spending but to know the basics are covered, yeah I'll take it. :)