Before Budgeting

Tim has a job that gets quarterly and year-end bonuses. With another one approaching, I've been wondering what we would have done with his bonuses if we weren't on the Dave Ramsey plan. Since he started his job just a few months before we got on board with Financial Peace, we don't have a clear answer. I'm sure we would NOT have paid off as much debt as we have in the past year. We had gotten to a point where we thought (and accepted) the idea that we'll simply always have a car payment and the student loan was a life-long "friend". I'm guessing we would probably have all new appliance (even though the ones we have function just fine), we probably would have put in more windows (or maybe even financed the whole deal), we probably would have new couches (instead of covering them with slip covers), I might even have that dining room table I've been wanting for a while. If we didn't have kids, we probably would have blown the money in a lot worse ways, but the end result is still the same. We would have still had the same monthly debts looming over our head.

I've been thinking about this lately because I was starting to beat myself up a little. At the beginning of the year we had decided that we would put 75% of all our bonuses and extra income toward debt. In the past few months that has dropped to closer to 50% (mostly as it relates to my income). I've really been disappointed in the fact that we haven't stayed true to our pledge. I've realized, though, as I think about where the money probably would have gone that 50% is still pretty good. I also need to remember all the things we've been able to pay for in cash. I just paid $196 worth of medical bills today and didn't have to worry about where we were going to get the money. I'm also going to get some long over due dental work and be able to pay on that also. That's what I'm trying to remind myself... the other 25% that's not going to pay down debt is going to make sure we don't accrue new debt. Plus, we're not out buying things we don't need or just blowing the money. We havent' been as strict as we could be, but we're far better off than we were before budgeting.

{Exhale} We're still on track.