YNAB You Need A Budget

[moonangel12]

We started changing our thought process about 3 years ago when I was PG with our first LO... I knew I was going to stay home, we just had to figure out how to make it work. DH and I will never forget sitting outside with paper and pen trying to figure out how it was going to work (he is the bread winner, but I handle the finances). We started with Dave Ramsey (I'm excited to see so many others doing the same thing!) and paid off quite a bit before DS was born. After that we hit some bumps in the road, but the biggest mountain of all was the lack of a budget! We tried old fashioned paper and pen and Excel sheets in a variety of ways, but after just a couple of weeks I would give up on it since it was such a PITB. Looking back, I have no idea how we made it through those first couple of years with more debt and less income than what we have now. It was definitely the waiting game of writing the check and hoping and praying it doesn't clear before payday. Overdraft was my friend and I used it much more often than I should have. Now I can even plan ahead for insurance and taxes, whoo hoo! (Never thought I would be excited about that!) I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to YNAB... we just had our second child in May and I have never been so at peace about our finances. They still need some work, but at least I know what our money is doing now... no more surprises when I open our account information!! I just looked at the calendar and DH gets paid 3 times next month - in the past it would just get absorbed into our every day spending, especially since it would be right after Christmas. I have already done a mock budget for January and if my calculations are correct, we will officially be debt free (except for $20K on our house)!!!! YAAAAAYYYYYYY!!!!!

[macduncan]

Awesome!!! Can't wait to hear you shout "We are debt free!!!!!!"

[maryea]

It's amazing how having a budget one can actually live by really helps!

[macduncan]

I want to hear "we are debt free!!!!!" Keep it up!

Bill