Reflection

These past few weeks have been a whirlwind of new jobs, new financial situations, and a newfound respect for all the saving we've been doing these last 17 months. You see, in December 2012 I had a 2 month old baby, a dwindling bank account, and severe anxiety for the future. Somehow, I found a book called Pocket Your Dollars, and even though I barely had $20 in the bank, I bought the book for $11.99 because I just had this gut feeling that I needed to read it.

I've said this before and I'll say it again. Read. This. Book. It's so eye opening and it will teach you so much about money and your relationship with it. I can honestly say I have no idea what my financial life might look like today had I not found this book.

Anyways, fast forward to today. I have recently left my full time job to become a part time (three days a week) Dental Assistant. Jeff is back to working full time at Kingdom Trails after working part time all winter. In the middle of all this happening, we needed to pay $640 for some car maintenance, $690 for two plane tickets, and $317 for an emergency situation with our dog Ellie. So in total that is $1,647 in a matter of one month. And you know what? We paid for it all IN CASH. I know that to some people that is pocket change, but for me and Jeff, I cannot even tell you just how great it felt to write out checks and not bat an eye. Our whole relationship we always thought we lived within our means, but in reality we weren't. We were watching our grocery budget and limited our fun money, but we were rarely thinking about what might be coming up ahead. 

I'm happy to report that we now make deposits to our emergency fund, our house down payment fund, our retirement fund, and our son's college fund every month, while still paying down our debt and having a tiny bit of fun all in the middle of that. Our financial future has never looked brighter and I owe so much to this book! 

Just thought I'd take a second and reflect on how far we've come. Although I strongly dislike taking money out of savings, at least it was there in the first place. I suppose that's another lesson for another day :)