Goodplans

My first Financial Check-up!
MSM's inspired posts promote financial accountability, and I just love that! Here's how we did last month:

1. We've taken the "divide and conquer" mentality, and since we're on Baby Step 2 of Dave's plan, that means paying off debts smallest to largest. We had three debts that were about the same amount, so we "divided" one debt into 2 parts on paper, and set a goal to pay off the smaller portion. We accomplished that September 16.
2. We've started accumilating snowflakes for a lump sum payment at the end of October. The snowflakes are from my grocery rebates and other unexpected income we receive during the month of October. I've already saved about $20 in a seperate account, and I have another check to deposit when I go to town next week. My goal is to have atleast $100 extra to add to the snowball at the end of October.
3. October is usually the month I'm almost finished with homemade Christmas gifts. Right now, I'm lagging behind, so my goal for October is to get all the gifts for which I have supplies made and wrapped.
4. My last October goal is to keep the weekly snowball rolling. DH's second job enables us to write snowball checks every Friday, plus the amount from his regular paychecks. These range from $200 to $500 a week depending on our income.

Since I started tracking our snowball again in March, we have paid off over $6000 in debt. That's not alot compared to some, but we're comparing ourselves with ourselves! Last year at this time, hubby had just been laid-off from Plant Specialties in Joplin, MO and it was February before he landed his current job. That's a long stretch with only unemployment as an income, so I feel fortunate that he's working even one job, much less two!

We've had three job changes in the last three years, beginning with the infamous World-Com collapse, and spiraling downhill from there. The new job seems to be secure and there's even talk that they're moving the facility to a new location about 12 minutes from home, cutting the commute in half, so hubby is pretty excited about that.

Things are looking up!