Debt Free Update

I just paid my DirecTV bill, that was a whopping $41. Which is awesome. Much better than the$90 that I was used to paying.

I have discovered live streaming TV. There are a ridiculous amount of websites that live stream cable TV shows as they happen. Although we're missing some of our favorite shows, we're not.

I just sent off a massive check to one of my loan providers, paying off one of my student loans. I will now have an extra $50 to put toward another student loan payment, should I so choose.

Keeping a budget has been incredibly difficult, considering that on any given month, Eric has no idea how much he will make. Sometimes, it's a large amount. Sometimes, it's not. It all depends on the size of the project and how fast/soon he can get it done. Some projects will bring in $600 in one day. Other projects might bring in $5000 a month. It all depends what he is working on.

So we've been diligently writing down everything we've been spending, which makes you really think about what you're going to buy. Do you really need that pop today? Do we really want to get pizza after church tonight? Should we really buy that particular item for our home improvement projects right now?

And we've been doing pretty good. We're holding each other accountable, and I have a handy excel spreadsheet to write everything down.

We are absolutely, 100% determined not to take out any sort of loan for anything we do. I don't know if it's really just the fact that we don't want to, or if we really don't want that other payment, or if we're just really stubborn. Or, let's face it, the fact that it's incredibly time consuming to go and get a loan. I don't have time for that.

I have sold $75 worth of my clothes on ebay, and it hasn't been that many! I started with the good stuff first, so that probably helps. I haven't listed anything lately, but I plan to hit it again this weekend.

I have been very careful about what I buy for groceries and am shocked to see that I have only spent about $250 this month. That's it! It helps that we bought a quarter cow, and hopefully, we'll be able to do that again soon, since we're running low!

Otherwise, we're doing pretty well and it's interesting to see what we spend money on. I have about a dozen categories where we file things, and it's interesting that we have only spent $48 on "fun" which is pop, buying toys for James, etc. If I weren't keeping track, I know it would have been a lot more than that.

So far, so good. Only $8,000 more to go... minus the house. Ha.