The summer is coming to an end and here in the Taylor household, we are rejoicing. Don’t get me wrong, we all LOVE summer, but after taking a new job that has a two month pay delay, summer meant some creative finances and some serious struggles I thought we would never overcome (but we totally did!)
This new season ahead is officially going to be called The Taylor Family Financial overhaul! I spent the summer doing more accounting than I ever did while working in a business office! I have analyzed and spread-sheeted our lives down to a single penny. And what I realized is, we just can’t live like this anymore!
We started our lives together in debt, taking out a personal loan to move to Florida, and I am determined to not live our lives paycheck to paycheck anymore just to keep up with everyone around us. What is so difficult is that most of our monthly expenses we can do nothing about. We have two high car payments that are not going to be paid off this year. I am HOPING we can pay one off early next year, but that may be a big stretch depending on how the year plays out. This is a big challenge and change for our family, so we are definitely going to need some encouragement!
One thing that is for sure is that we are going to be living on a shoestring budget, on purpose, and throwing everything extra to debt! One of the hardest things for me is giving up vacations, as I truly believe you learn more and get more out of experiences rather than material items! I am going to TRY really hard to complete as many Swagbucks surveys as I can, shop through Ebates when I need to order something online and try every other way possible to have a little extra so that we can get to Disney this year! We have been so lucky to have so many free, or almost free, trips in the past two years, we have been too spoiled to give it up!
I hope you join us on our journey, and as this blog takes a little shift. I am so passionate about this right now for everyone! Hop on board!
And if you have any tips and tricks to not make this transition so awful, I’d love to hear them!!!