August/September monthly check-in.

als1982 · September 2015

Another month = more financial progress! Please share your successes, reflections and ways you can improve in the coming month here:

August

1. What were your financial goals for the month?

2. Were you able accomplish them?

3. What were your greatest achievements?

4. What were your biggest downfalls?

September

1. What are your money goals for this month?

2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals?

3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month?

Status of Ongoing Goals

1. Student loan payoff, down-payment savings, and mortgage or car payoff

2. Savings success

3. Net worth watch

GTKY Bonus

September means a transition into fall. What is fall like where you live? What is your favorite thing about fall?

als1982 · September 2015

August

1. What were your financial goals for the month? Student loan payoff! We also created a list of small home improvements or purchases we want to do over the next year, with a line item in our budget of $1,000 a month to fulfill one of these things per month. The first, to have our pipes augured (we have several 60+ year old trees and their roots are a problem), which came in WAY under at only $165. Next month is to have our air vents cleaned. We're hoping this comes in at around $600.

2. Were you able accomplish them? Yes. We were also blessed with a small inheritance from my grandmother of $4,500, which will put us a month ahead on our initial payoff plan.

3. What were your greatest achievements? I've continued to do well on my personal spending, and finding small side gigs to help support those purchases.

4. What were your biggest downfalls? Eating out. We seem to have zero self control in this area. We also took two steps forward and one step back financially by booking a ten day trip to Florida in November. Flights were free, but it's looking like we'll need to budget at least $3,000 for accommodations, food, park tickets and miscellaneous.

September

1. What are your money goals for this month? Keep working on the student loan. Set aside $1,000 for Florida trip in November, as well as save an additional $1,000 for home projects.

2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals? Just continue to try and spend as little money as possible.

3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month? Well, hopefully the thought of getting into a swimsuit in November will help us cut down on the eating out!!

Status of Ongoing Goals

1. Student loan payoff, down-payment savings, and mortgage or car payoff:

In June we started right around $58,000
Since August 1, we have paid $6,782.06
Our current balance is $46,866.49
Stretch goal for payoff is still October 2016

2. Savings success

$2,516.44 to retirement accounts (including employer matches).

3. Net worth watch

According to Mint, just under $61,400, which includes the remaining $6,500 we have in savings owed to our bathroom contractor (there have been some issues with the vanity that have caused a serious delay – everything else is pretty much finished, but it’ll likely be at least two more weeks until that is fixed and installed.)

GTKY Bonus

September means a transition into fall. What is fall like where you live? What is your favorite thing about fall?

I love the clothes: hoodies, boots and jeans. I like the crispness of the air, when it starts to get cooler, and going on long walks when the leaves are starting to fall. The smell when people start to burn fires in their fireplaces.

cbee817 · September 2015

August

1. What were your financial goals for the month? Keep as is for the month while DH is home (he's a public school teacher)

2. Were you able accomplish them? Yes- didn't put anything into savings this month, but we're in decent shape for September.

3. What were your greatest achievements? We took our 1 year CD (has 5 months of expenses) and turned it into a 1-5 year CD ladder. The lady at the credit union was annoyed but it only took like 15 minutes.

4. What were your biggest downfalls? Summer is always tight for us- DH can now elect 26 paychecks/year so it'll feel much more normal going forward.

September

1. What are your money goals for this month? Figure out DH's paychecks with his job at the new district, get the budget set up for the rest of the year based on that.

2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals? He'll get his first full paycheck in a few weeks so we can get everything set up then.

3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month? It's a busy month for us so hopefully that'll keep us from outside spending- not much down time.

Status of Ongoing Goals

1. Student loan payoff, down-payment savings, and mortgage or car payoff:

SL: paid off in January 2013

DP: N/A - would use what we make from our house for a DP (probably $100,000) but won't be moving for a minimum of 2 years.

Mortgage: $95,557.32 - will be paid off in December 2025 if we stay (refinanced to a 15 year loan at 4% in 2010).

Car balance: $23,300.78 (DH just bought a car in July- 0.9% interest for 48 months)

Sewer Repair: $2,800 left! (Financed $8,200 on a 0% credit card- will be paid off in December)

2. Savings success: $350/month goes to 529 plans, Roth IRAs are fully funded for 2015, savings account has 3 months of expenses, CDs have 5 months of expenses, vacation savings = $7,500, girls also have savings account for when they get older (about $2,000 each).

3. Net worth watch: Went down a little from the stock market- we're at $318,709

GTKY Bonus

September means a transition into fall. What is fall like where you live? What is your favorite thing about fall? Fall is great here- trees change colors, temps are in the 50's-70's, we have lots of pumpkin patches/apple orchards. I love boots, sweaters, jeans and not having to wear a coat yet.... our winters are brutal.

hoffse · September 2015

August

1. What were your financial goals for the month?

Finish paying off the last bits of the kitchen and cash-flow the kitchen furniture.

2. Were you able accomplish them?

By the skin of our teeth, but yes - we did.

3. What were your greatest achievements?

Not related to our own finances, but my H has started a junior patrons group for a major arts nonprofit in town, and I am the treasurer. We raised over $4,000 in the last three weeks of August. Our launch event is on Thursday, and we managed to get so much stuff donated that we're looking at a price tag of less than $1,100 for live music, open bar, apps, etc. for 120 people. Most of the people signed up will be paying $25 at the door, so we should actually make money on this thing, which is amazing since the group literally did not exist 2 months ago. I'm really proud of how much we've done!

4. What were your biggest downfalls?

We eat out way too much.

September

1. What are your money goals for this month?

Scale back on the spending and limit house projects to finishing things we've already started or using up supplies we already have.

2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals?

Spending more time plotting out the plan for projects, rather than deciding once we get to the store...

3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month?

I've managed to find an extra $3,500 or so for unexpected dues, donations, etc. this past year. I also did it without compromising any of our other goals that we had planned out when the year started. We're finally easing off from all of that, and I'm incredibly relieved. That's been enough of a challenge for me!

Status of Ongoing Goals

1. Student loan payoff, down-payment savings, and mortgage or car payoff

Same as always - I have a set amount I send to these each month. The first thing that will be paid off is H's car, and this won't happen until next September.

2. Savings success

We've about $2,000 to our Roth 401(k)s this month (combined) and I have set aside another $2500 for our Roth IRAs at the end of the year.

3. Net worth watch

Still negative by about $57K. But when I started tracking it I was negative by 6 digits. So hey - progress!

GTKY Bonus

September means a transition into fall. What is fall like where you live? What is your favorite thing about fall?

Where I live people ask you two questions when they meet you: 1) Where do you go to church? 2) Alabama or Auburn? Needless to say, fall means college football here.

I don't care about football, and I like the fall for the colors, the food, and the clothes. But I'm definitely in the minority.

simplyelise · September 2015

August

1. What were your financial goals for the month?

We always shoot for 2500 towards student loans and 100 for car replacement and 20 for gym sinking fund.

2. Were you able accomplish them?

We did 2446 to student loans and 100 to car replacement and 20 to gym sinking fund. And we put $50 towards a gofundme for an acquaintance in serious medical needs, so I'm saying Yes to this.

3. What were your greatest achievements?

We put 48% of our takehome income to debt and 2% takehome to savings while still tithing 10%.

4. What were your biggest downfalls?

DH's car needed $1115 in repairs on Sunday. We used e-fund for 1k and a car repair sinking fund for the rest. We probably won't refund that 1k to the efund until debt payoff is finished.

September

1. What are your money goals for this month?

My car has somewhere around $600 needed for maintenance, so we've budgeted $1910 for SLs, $100 for car replacement savings, and $20 for gym sinking fund.

2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals?

We just literally don't spend money unless it's in the budget. And we track everything immediately.

3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month?

We kind of got suckered into buying Cardinals tickets from DH's mom's work, so we have to go to STL for a night and two days to hang out with MIL, SFIL, and SILs family . We're staying with my parents and we've budgeted $80 for the non-fuel part of the trip. We're going to try to come in way under this.

Status of Ongoing Goals

1. Student loan payoff, down-payment savings, and mortgage or car payoff

SL balance today is $28,729. We started payoff in November, 2014 with 55,421 and we will be done in July 2016. No mortgage and no car loans.

2. Savings success

We've got $800 in our car replacement fund. Everything else is debt.

3. Net worth watch

Meh, probably somewhere around -18k

GTKY Bonus

September means a transition into fall. What is fall like where you live? What is your favorite thing about fall?

I LOVE FALL. The leaves are beautiful and the weather here is so pretty -- cool and windy but usually sunny. I also love college football season. It's not always fun for traffic in my SEC town, but it's so much fun getting together with people and eating together. I also love making soup in the crockpot and enjoying walks around our nicely wooded apt complex. But most of all, I love that I can wear all my leggings and boots and scarves!

dragonstarjk · September 2015

August

1. What were your financial goals for the month? Our goal was to get our porch started and get the financing rolling so we know what our new budget is going to look like

2. Were you able accomplish them? Not exactly. Our porch has been delayed until September and we've had a lot of unexpected expenses come up the last month, so it's been a rough month budget and goal-wise.

3. What were your greatest achievements? Getting the front of our house ready for the contractor to start next month!

4. What were your biggest downfalls? Unexpected things--our central A/C unit stopped working and it was $500 to repair; we found out that it is on it's last leg and will probably need replaced next year. A few hundred dollars for porch prep that we didn't budget for. Everything just kind of adds up.

September

1. What are your money goals for this month? Replenish our savings accounts; I've had to use both our vacation fund savings and our shopping fund savings to cover all of the unexpected expenses, so my #1 goal is to get those back up where they were.

2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals? We really cut back on eating out, so I think if we can continue that it will be very helpful. Also going to try to save money on groceries (especially since H will be up in the mountains hunting for 3 weeks).

3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month? I'd like to try to cut our budget enough to at least put a few hundred back into each of our savings accounts. It will be a challenge to do it all in one month, but I'm going to try!

Status of Ongoing Goals

1. Student loan payoff, down-payment savings, and mortgage or car payoff: Just paying as agreed, not trying to pay anything off early. H's truck will pay off in December, yippee!

2. Savings success-Not so much!

3. Net worth watch--Pretty much the same as last month.

GTKY Bonus

September means a transition into fall. What is fall like where you live? What is your favorite thing about fall?

Fall is hunting season here, so that's what most people are talking about. The weather is super nice, but I start to get anxious knowing that it's leading into the cold, snowy suck of winter.

splotch716 · September 2015

August

What were your financial goals for the month?

I changed jobs during August so it was to put off spending as much as possible while still paying my bills.

2. Were you able accomplish them? Sadly, no. I got my extra vacation paid out from my old job and spent about $200 of it.

3. What were your greatest achievements? Starting a new job which pays a livable wage. I also got my state license for CDP! I passed the exam and am officially licensed.

4. What were your biggest downfalls? We ate out way too much. I spent more of my paid out vacation than I wanted to.

September

1. What are your money goals for this month? Save as much as possible. We already had a vacation planned for this week through Monday before I was offered the new job. I will have 3 days of unpaid vacation on my next paycheck.

2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals? Challenge myself to no spend weeks. Keep my eye on the prize. In November I will be paying the last of the almost $20,000 in cc debt. I’ve been paying on it since January 2012.

3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month? Challenge myself to no spend weeks, meal plan, and eat out of our pantry/fridge/freezer with the exception of fresh veggies and fruit.

Status of Ongoing Goals

Student loan payoff, down-payment savings, and mortgage or car payoff
My student loans are still on income based repayment from when I was on maternity leave. They haven’t changed much in the last year. I still have about $24,000. The good news is that I owe less than $1000 on my cc payoff started in January 2012. Will be paid off in November!
Savings success
I have started putting whatever is left over in bank account from the previous payday, in my savings account on my current pay day. All the money from my second job is direct deposited in my savings account as well.
Net worth watch

I am still in the negative since I have so much cc and sl debt. We don’t have any assets either.

GTKY Bonus

September means a transition into fall. What is fall like where you live? What is your favorite thing about fall?

It is rainy, windy, and cold. I look forward to fall because of football season, the pumpkin patch, and DDs first Halloween! She is going to be a lion. This year I am also hoping the change in weather will help the fire fighters who have been battling the largest fire in Washington state history.

short+sassy · September 2015

hoffse said:

Where I live people ask you two questions when they meet you: 1) Where do you go to church? 2) Alabama or Auburn? Needless to say, fall means college football here.

I don't care about football, and I like the fall for the colors, the food, and the clothes. But I'm definitely in the minority.

Before he met me, my H lived in B'ham for a few years and said he was told "the three B's in AL are Baptist, BBQ, and (foot)Ball...and not necessarily in that order."

August

1. What were your financial goals for the month?

My financial goal was to buy my first non-owner occupied house.

2. Were you able accomplish them?

Yes! Early in the month.

3. What were your greatest achievements?

Paying down my HELOC balance by $5,000...some of this was closing costs were less than I anticipated and some was going back to putting extra money to this balance.

4. What were your biggest downfalls?

My biggest downfall was underestimating the rehab costs, thought not horribly. But it is my first rodeo, so not unexpected and I allowed a lot of cushion.

September

1. What are your money goals for this month?

Pay my car off.

2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals?

Allocate $3,000 of earnings to loan with the remaining $2,000 coming from HELOC. So, some of it is more transferring the debt, but at least I will have one less bill to pay and that $300/month payment will be used right back to pay down the HELOC.

3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month?

I am on a constant challenge to find ways to decrease my construction costs for the new duplex, without sacrificing quality.

Status of Ongoing Goals

1. Student loan payoff, down-payment savings, and mortgage or car payoff

My ongoing goal is to payoff my car and my HELOC. The car will be paid off this month to get it out of the way. Next month (October) I should be able to start throwing all my excess income to the HELOC.

2. Savings success

My HELOC at my highest was $22K (before down payment). Paid it down by $8K over the last year, but then used $19K for down payment on duplex for a current balance of $33K. Not great, but getting there.

3. Net worth watch

Up $33K from July, $30K of that was from built-in equity on duplex purchase.

GTKY Bonus

September means a transition into fall. What is fall like where you live? What is your favorite thing about fall?

Fall is my favorite season where I live because of the weather. Fall doesn't quite start until mid-late Sept., but then the temps finally drop down to the 80s. And are a super lovely mid-70s in Oct. and into Nov. Though we don't quite have the changing leaf colors, like in the North. My other favorite thing about Fall is pumpkin flavored everything and apple cider, lol.

jessica490 · September 2015

August

1. What were your financial goals for the month?

Basically to keep saving up for the house we closed on the 20th and pay for moving expenses which were cheap

2. Were you able accomplish them?

Yes! With money leftover

3. What were your greatest achievements?

Being able to buy a house

4. What were your biggest downfalls?

Nothing this month

September

1. What are your money goals for this month?

Start getting a feel for the home bills and what they will be like. Not buying everything we want/need for the house at once, but picking a few projects/expenses at a time. Luckily we have a lot of stuff from the condo and the buyers left a lot of stuff too.

2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals?

Just pace ourselves and go slow and watch what we spend

3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month?

Just watching the bills

Status of Ongoing Goals

1. Student loan payoff, down-payment savings, and mortgage or car payoff

We saved enough to make a good house down payment. Of course we have a mortgage again, but no other debt to pay off.

2. Savings success

We are building our e-fund about $5-$10K more now that we have a house, but otherwise we are comfortable with what we have. We also plan to use some savings to open ROTH IRA's by April 2016

3. Net worth watch

Don't pay attention to this. I'm sure it's back into the negatives now that we have a mortage

GTKY Bonus

September means a transition into fall. What is fall like where you live? What is your favorite thing about fall?

I love fall! Colorful leave, cool air, and all the fairs...my favorite is the Big E in Mass. We go every year!

brij2006 · September 2015

August

1. What were your financial goals for the month?
Cash flow vacation, lawyer bill, and chiropractor.

2. Were you able accomplish them?
Yes

3. What were your greatest achievements?
Still being able to put money into savings after paying those.

4. What were your biggest downfalls?

Some unbudgeted spending on extra things, and buying each other gifts for our anniversary that we hadn't originally planned on.

September

1. What are your money goals for this month?

Cash flow more chiropractor bills, and our trip to Nashville to do our debt free scream.

2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals?

Keeping eating out cost low, and groceries in check.

3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month?

Focus more on figuring out some of our "fluff" spending. Now that we aren't gungho on getting rid of debt, we are able to spend some fun money. Yet aren't sure the appropriate way to go about it.

Status of Ongoing Goals

1. Student loan payoff, down-payment savings, and mortgage or car payoff

All gone. Checked my credit score, and my debt to income ratio is officially 0. My percentage of wealth debt = 0% as well. Now to give it a few months, and my credit score will go down to zero as well.

2. Savings success

Have emergency fund fully funded, and started H's 401k at 10% contribution. Just need to figure out which financial advisor we want our roths with, and fully fund them.

3. Net worth watch

Oooh, I would need to go through and add this up.

GTKY Bonus

September means a transition into fall. What is fall like where you live? What is your favorite thing about fall?

Fall around here means farmers in the fields, pumpkin patches open, fresh mums are planted. My favorite thing is riding in the combine or semi at the farm. I also love the sound of the corn dryer going. It just screams fall to me.

csuave · September 2015

We did well in August. We fully enjoyed the month and managed to put a little extra into savings. Doing a lot of free activities helped with maintaining our budget.

The dog's ear infection was an unexpected expense and so was buying a new router but we had AirBnB income to cover these expenditures.

September we will stay the course but spend a little more overall which should be OK given where we stand with savings right now. We have plans to drive to visit family, thankfully lower gas prices will help keep those travel expenses down somewhat.

GTKY: I love fall. Wearing jeans and hoodies, the beautiful leaves, bonfires and new TV shows! I can't wait for my old favorites to return!

bmo88 · September 2015

August

1. What were your financial goals for the month?

To set up a separate Money Market savings account--Complete
To reach 4 months emergency expenses--Complete
To pay off my student loans--Complete

2. Were you able accomplish them?

Yes, see above.

3. What were your greatest achievements?

Paying off my student loans!

4. What were your biggest downfalls?

Nothing major.

September

1. What are your money goals for this month?

To effectively budget for our trip to Europe in December. We need to figure out hotel costs, food, transportation, etc.
To eat out as little as possible and not spend during our break next week (1 week off from work for both of us). We have a tendency of spending money when we aren't working for a few days or more.

2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals?

Cook more often, meal plan.
Start researching pricing for Europe.

3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month?

Going to try to direct some more money toward savings and retirement this month.

Status of Ongoing Goals

1. Student loan payoff, down-payment savings, and mortgage or car payoff

Student loans paid off, 2nd mortgage--paid off 1/4 of it, car--paid off 1/3 of it

2. Savings success

Officially saved 4 months emergency expenses!
We are both saving above 12% for retirement (I save 18%, DH saves 13%)

3. Net worth watch

Not sure at the moment and too lazy to figure it out.

GTKY Bonus

September means a transition into fall. What is fall like where you live? What is your favorite thing about fall?

I live in Colorado. So it's brisk at night, leaves are starting to change and it's getting a darker a little earlier. I love this time of year because of the trees and cooler weather.

KatieCutie05 · September 2015

August

We paid off my car which was amazing!

Biggest downfall was groceries....we were a bit too ambitious. Spent 550 with a 320 budget. And medical but my old HSA will cover that. We also forgot about my yearly life insurance so we couldn't put as much to debt as we had planned.

September

Trying to stay on budget which includes our 1200 extra to debt goal. We are leaving for myrtle beach at the end of the month. So we also have beach supplies to pick up now that we're traveling with a baby.

We have a 400 grocery budget this month... but thats probably still too low. But i mean c'mon i gotta be able to go lower then 550! for 2 adults and a baby!

Status of Ongoing Goals

Paid off my Car! Just got the title in the mail... it feels awesome!

Just got a 6k inheritance check from my Grandma. And my mom is sending money for me to put in a college savings for DS.

So i'm paying off my small 3,800 student loan in a few days!!! Then I think we're going to put an extra 1200 on DH's car so his car should be paid off in November! Then we will be down to just school loans!

GTKY Bonus

September means a transition into fall. What is fall like where you live? What is your favorite thing about fall?

The really pretty fall like scenery is very short here as opposed to where i grew up. Which also means its warmer so its a good trade. But by far my favorite thing about fall is pumpkin lattes and well pumpkin everything!!!

Xstatic3333 · September 2015

Another month = more financial progress! Please share your successes, reflections and ways you can improve in the coming month here:

August

1. What were your financial goals for the month?
Really just to get through without touching savings. We had our major travel for the year (two relatively local trips a few hours drive away) and a couple of weddings of good friends.

2. Were you able accomplish them?
No. I needed new tires with very little warning, and we under budgeted for most of the travel.

3. What were your greatest achievements?
My dive shop was requiring me to "work off" my instructor course, and I completed that this month so now diving checks will be used towards our goals. I am making much more now as an instructor so this has the potential to be quite helpful.

4. What were your biggest downfalls?
Under budgeting for travel. I hit the big items, but neglected things like lunch on the road, forgotten toiletries, etc.

September

1. What are your money goals for this month?
Our money goals need to be connected to the life goal of slowing the eff down! I want to stay local, work on the weekends instead of spending, and get back to our savings goals.

2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals?
See above-SLOW DOWN.

3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month?
I think I'll raise my automatic Roth contributions $20 a month starting in September and see if I notice a difference.

Status of Ongoing Goals

1. Student loan payoff, down-payment savings, and mortgage or car payoff: Not a current priority; just minimums here.
2. Savings success: Took $500 from savings, but maintained automatic Roth contributions.
3. Net worth watch: Not currently tracking.

GTKY Bonus

September means a transition into fall. What is fall like where you live? What is your favorite thing about fall?

I LOVE fall in New England. I'm a sucker for all of it: hiking, Halloween, leaves, pumpkins, apple picking, etc. It's my favorite season by far.

short+sassy · September 2015

Xstatic3333, I've heard of apple picking, but have never lived in an area that grows apples. Sounds heavenly!

BlueBirdMB · September 2015

short+sassy said:

Xstatic3333, I've heard of apple picking, but have never lived in an area that grows apples. Sounds heavenly!

Apple picking is awesome

I grew up in a town that was mostly apple orchards

vlagrl29 · September 2015

August

1. Goals were to continue saving for e fund and retirement

2. Yes for e fund but not so much for retirement

3. Can't say that we had any huge achievements this month because it was a very spendy month buying DD back to school clothes which we budget $200 for and I didn't book as much gigs so thats why the savings was a bit dry.

4. Honestly eating out - Which I will change this month.

September

1. Take cash out for eating out so we can see when it's gone and scale back eating out by meal planning a bit more. Also book more gigs and DH breaking ground on the calendar for Sept 10th fingers crossed.

2. Having a cash envelope for eating out, sending out some mailers and more follow up calls/emails so I can get more gigs booked.

3. Goal is to stay within the new budget I did a couple days ago. I just need to check in on that more often

Status of Ongoing Goals

1. I made a personal goal for my SL's - once we get $1k more in our savings I'm going to use part of my gig money to put extra on my SL payments. Its our only debt right now and while I'm not in a huge hurry to pay it off because of super low interest rate I do feel like I need to be a bit more strict about it.

Regarding DH's car I'm done putting lots of money in it because it has hurt our savings account. He has a small oil leak now but if we get an estimate thats more than $700 we are doing to go ahead and try to sell his car and get a newer used on of the same make/model.

2. We just keep on plugging away at putting a minimum set amount away each month

3. We don't take net worth

GTKY Bonus

we live in the midwest and I love fall especially all the leave changes and cooler air. we pick apples, pumpkins, have DDs annual photos taken outside, and host our annual patio party. Fall is pretty busy for us.

vlagrl29 · September 2015

KatieCutie05 said:

August
We paid off my car which was amazing!
Biggest downfall was groceries....we were a bit too ambitious. Spent 550 with a 320 budget. And medical but my old HSA will cover that. We also forgot about my yearly life insurance so we couldn't put as much to debt as we had planned.

September
Trying to stay on budget which includes our 1200 extra to debt goal. We are leaving for myrtle beach at the end of the month. So we also have beach supplies to pick up now that we're traveling with a baby.
We have a 400 grocery budget this month... but thats probably still too low. But i mean c'mon i gotta be able to go lower then 550! for 2 adults and a baby!

Status of Ongoing Goals
Paid off my Car! Just got the title in the mail... it feels awesome!
Just got a 6k inheritance check from my Grandma. And my mom is sending money for me to put in a college savings for DS.
So i'm paying off my small 3,800 student loan in a few days!!! Then I think we're going to put an extra 1200 on DH's car so his car should be paid off in November! Then we will be down to just school loans!

GTKY Bonus

September means a transition into fall. What is fall like where you live? What is your favorite thing about fall?
The really pretty fall like scenery is very short here as opposed to where i grew up. Which also means its warmer so its a good trade. But by far my favorite thing about fall is pumpkin lattes and well pumpkin everything!!!

We are a family of 3 and honestly you need to budget $450-$500 per month on groceries. Food is important

brij2006 · September 2015

vlagrl29 said:

KatieCutie05 said:

August
We paid off my car which was amazing!
Biggest downfall was groceries....we were a bit too ambitious. Spent 550 with a 320 budget. And medical but my old HSA will cover that. We also forgot about my yearly life insurance so we couldn't put as much to debt as we had planned.

September
Trying to stay on budget which includes our 1200 extra to debt goal. We are leaving for myrtle beach at the end of the month. So we also have beach supplies to pick up now that we're traveling with a baby.
We have a 400 grocery budget this month... but thats probably still too low. But i mean c'mon i gotta be able to go lower then 550! for 2 adults and a baby!

Status of Ongoing Goals
Paid off my Car! Just got the title in the mail... it feels awesome!
Just got a 6k inheritance check from my Grandma. And my mom is sending money for me to put in a college savings for DS.
So i'm paying off my small 3,800 student loan in a few days!!! Then I think we're going to put an extra 1200 on DH's car so his car should be paid off in November! Then we will be down to just school loans!

GTKY Bonus

September means a transition into fall. What is fall like where you live? What is your favorite thing about fall?
The really pretty fall like scenery is very short here as opposed to where i grew up. Which also means its warmer so its a good trade. But by far my favorite thing about fall is pumpkin lattes and well pumpkin everything!!!

We are a family of 3 and honestly you need to budget $450-$500 per month on groceries. Food is important

First. Congratulations on paying off the car, and being close to paying off your H's. YAY!!!! You guys are doing amazing!

As for food budget, it's my H and I and our almost 7 month old. We budget and spend $400/month and it's tight. Some months we bump it to $450. However, we don't eat out much, so I feel our budget may be higher than the norm because of that.

AprilZ81 · September 2015

I've been so bad about participating in these threads the past few months. Spending has been okay but I've been so down about continuing to be out of work and waiting on the appeal to be heard on my unemployment denial. My unemployment has been restarted as of today and they are depositing $1,900 in back benefits into my account this week. This restores our cushion in our checking account and then some. After this week I only have 8 weeks left of benefits.

August

1. What were your financial goals for the month? We didn't have anything specific other than "stay on budget"

2. Were you able accomplish them? Mostly. We pulled a little bit out of savings and vacation funds for a night in a hotel and a new dress for me to go to DH's 20 year high school reunion, but the dress was only $32 at JCPenny so it wasn't too bad.

3. What were your greatest achievements? n/a

4. What were your biggest downfalls? I'm struggling with "control" since I'm still out of work and we've had some minor unexpected expenses pop up. I need to work on letting go a little bit.

September

1. What are your money goals for this month? Stay on budget!

2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals? Same as last month and just monitor spending.

3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month? I haven't really thought about it, but I continue to work on ways to save on our grocery budget. DH and his beer habit (not a drunk just likes craft beer) and my Mt. Dew doesn't help. I'm slowly cutting back in hopes of being pregnant soon but DH is resistant to cutting back on the beer.

Status of Ongoing Goals

1. Student loan payoff, down-payment savings, and mortgage or car payoff. We have paid off $2,500ish on our HELOC since we opened it last August for our kitchen remodel (we paid cash for 2/3 of the expenses). Our September payment means we are under $8,000 now.

2. Savings success: We used my last pay check to buy a 6 pack of NHL hockey passes. I did talk DH into getting cheaper seats and that saved us $300 over doing the same package as last year. Other than pulling money out for a few small things all of our savings goals are on track.

3. Net worth watch: We have a positive net worth if you include retirement accounts. If you don't it is close to even maybe a smidge on the positive side depending on the house value.

GTKY Bonus

September means a transition into fall. What is fall like where you live? What is your favorite thing about fall?

I love fall! I live in the mid-west and it is usually full of awesome weather. September is still pretty hot/humid but towards the end of the month and into October it is usually beautiful with sunny skies, low humidity and temps in the 70s.

Xstatic3333 · September 2015

BlueBirdMB said:
short+sassy said:

Xstatic3333, I've heard of apple picking, but have never lived in an area that grows apples. Sounds heavenly!

Apple picking is awesome

I grew up in a town that was mostly apple orchards

It's the best! My favorite orchard is too far away now, but it's up in MA and has both apple picking and an amazing winery. Yum! You can really taste the difference with local apples.

August/September monthly check-in.

Re: August/September monthly check-in.

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