Tax Refund

What to do with our tax return money? My husband and I have a couple of options as to do with our tax return money.  Both options are and will be a good investment for our furture and both options will get done at some point it is just a matter of what order to do them in.

It's amazing how much more money 1 kid can bring in from our tax return.  Our tax refund doubled from last year.  Now,  Ryne and I have to decide what we are going to do with our money this year. We have two options that we could do.  We could use the money to insulate our basement or we could use the money to pay down Ryne's student loans.  We are stuck in a dilemma.

 If we decide to spray insulate our our basement, it will take a good chunk of our refund.  I have been doing some research and have decided to go with Foam It Green Home Energy Kit.  This would be a $1500 expense.  This will help keep our house cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.  There is a lot of air leakage coming from our basement therefore this would be a wise investment and cut down our gas and energy costs. This kit is a DYI kit so I can do it when I want too. I am an impatient person and want to do it right now; however, after doing some research, if I get an energy audit, I  could get a 70% rebate. This option would mean I would have to be patient.

Our other option is to paying Ryne's Student Loans. With our full refund, we would be about $600 give or take a few hundred away from being able to but his loans in forbarance.  The last $5000 would be paid off through the Teacher Loan Forgiveness plan.  This would free up $232  and though the Dave Ramsey snowball effect, we could have one of our credit cards paid off in 4-6 months. In the long run, this would defiantly help pay our debt off quicker.

Ryne has taken on two additional coaching position so we will be able to do both. The question is which should we do first?  After talking with my husband, we are going to call the energy company and see when they can do an energy audit.  I think this will help determine which direction we should go in first.

Dave Ramsey Plan Beginning Months Struggles

Another suprise expense!  Yesterday, I went to go get the mail from out mailbox.  There was a letter addressed to me and my girls.  It was an invitation to my sister-in-law's baby shower.  Well, we all know that you cannot show up to a baby shower without a gift; however, it is my daughter's first birthday in this same pay period.  I have a dilemma.

My husband's and my New's Resolution was to do the Davr Ramsey Plan and stick to it.  We attempted before Christmas and failed miserably. So this time we wanted to put together a budget and stick to it.

With it only being the second month of the plan, our savings for each budget hasn't  accumulated.  It is my daughter's first birthday on March 17th.  On February 15, it was my daughter's 3rd birthday.  So, in my head, I was planning on using the allotted money set aside for gifts for their birthdays.  I don't set aside a whole lot, just enough  for what we can afford for right now. And in this day and age $60 does not go very far.

I have looked through my budget and every penny has been stretched and pinched.  A couple of things have already popped up that are needs such as my husband needs an eye exam and my car registration need to be paid, because once again, I haven't had enough time to save.

Luckily, my in-laws are having a girl, and I have two girls, I hate regifting, but might have to go through my girls' old clothes and find ones with tags on them. It's not exactly ideal but for right now it's what we can afford.

Pay day!!

     Praise the Lord!  It's PAY DAY!  my husband and I only get paid once a month and our paycheck come in two days apart so he and I feel like we are scraping by at the end of the month.

     This month was a little different though.  We both decided that we were going to stick to the Dave Ramsey Plan as a part of our New Year's Resolution.  Well, we survived. We did a no- no and borrowed from other budgets because we didn't plan very well.  But the important thing is that we didn't put anything on our credit cards and we're didn't borrow from money set aside for quarterly bills.

    I sat down and did our budget. One bill that was unexpected and kinda of puts a damper on our paying extra on out debt, was our car registration.  It's one those bills you know you have to pay once a year but forget when you have to pay it.  Now that I know that it is $150, I can put that into my budget that every month I need to set aside $12.50 for this car registration.