Post by ilikedonuts on Apr 17, 2014 15:10:46 GMT -5
We made sure the only debt we had was one car payment and the mortgage(paid off anything else) and that we had 4-5 months in an efund. We've already eaten away at some of the efund since DD1 was born in 2011 so we're trying to build it back up. Other than that nothing really changed. I wasn't making a lot and we used my paycheck at the time to pay off debt.
Sold a car - H works from home so no need to have two
Stopped eating out and I do a lot more meal planning to stay on budget
Stopped doing as many overnight trips. Between dog boarding and hotels, we were spending a lot.
Gave up Sephora trips
That cut out the bulk of our excessive spending...of course I'm not buying handbags or expensive clothes, and it will be a while before we start traveling to Europe again. We also aren't investing as much as we used to.
Specifically, we sold my car, which had a payment, and bought another outright. We already had an emergency fund and zero consumer debt so that certainly helped. I owned a condo that we were losing $$$ on every month so we sold it to stop the immediate hurt. In retrospect, it would have been nice to hold on to it till now, when we could have sold for a profit, but we absolutely suck at real estate.
We had a 15 yr mortgage that we could afford on DH's salary alone (he bought our old house before he met me) so we had real equity when we moved a year ago and were able to put enough down on our new home to avoid PMI and keep out payment incredibly affordable. We didn't buy more than we could afford. Highly suggest that. I don't coupon but I watch the heck out of sales. We're both pretty frugal, we don't have expensive hobbies and couldn't care less about electronics and other $$$ things. DH is incredibly handy and will DIY everything around the house and most maintenance on the cars.
Honestly, what's helped the most is DH increasing his income. With me at home, he really is able to pour himself into his career. He never has to leave for daycare pick up or stay at home with a sick child. He can travel on a whim when he needs to, for example. If I was also working, none of that would be possible. He has really worked his ass off and risen quickly because of it. He now makes close to what we made together five years ago, all on his own.