I had three goals for 2014:
No.1: Stick with a tiny, one salary budget so S could stay home with the boys
and restart his pottery studio.
No 2: Get emergency fund back up to $1000.
No 3: Pay off remainder of medical bills (which was $550 when I made the goal),
pay off as much cc debt as possible, and continue to chip away at all other
debts with minimum payments for a grand total of $7,000 in total debt
reduction.
Looking back on the year, I have to laugh at how naïve I was when I made goal
number 1. The transition to one income was much more difficult than I had ever
imagined. It required a level of cooperation and communication between S and I
that was way beyond our ability when the goal was made. It took months of
growing pains before I really felt like we were in synch about the budget and
many more months after that before we could reign in our spending to conform
with the new budget. We were also ridiculously naïve about how much work S
would really be able to get done with the boys at home and how much time/ money
it would really take to get a business off the ground. Taking the year as a
whole, we bombed goal number 1. But in the final quarter we were able to launch
S’ business, have been able to stick with our budget and start making a dent in
debt again. We have also grown immensely in our relationship, as parents, and
as financially responsible people so I’m thinking we didn’t totally fail at
goal number 1.
We met goal number 2 in the final
quarter, which is such a relief. Overall we are doing a much better job at
forecasting, budgeting, and saving for upcoming major, one-time expenses but
it’s good to have some money set aside for real emergencies like the ones we
have faced this year.
Lastly, there’s no way to sugar
coat goal number 3: we failed miserably. We failed to understand what goal
number 1 meant and ended up acquiring new debt trying to figure it out. We
failed at estimating just how much the move would cost us and acquired new debt
trying to make the transition. We wiped out our emergency fund in the move
which meant we had no way to pay for the unexpected medical expenses and
acquired new medical debt. It just wasn’t a great year financially until the
last quarter, when we finally got our act together. I guess I should be
thankful we are ending the year with only an additional $1000 in debt given all
the failures along the way.
2014 was a major learning
experience, yes, we increased our debt, but in the end I am proud of how well
we have dealt with the setbacks. I am anticipating 2015 will be a great year
for us, we’ll continue to grow and learn how to manage this new lifestyle,
we’ll start seeing major decreases in debt again, and we’ll better predict and
manage upcoming expense. Here’s hoping for an uneventful year, at least in the
financial aspect!
