Lovin and Living
This is a place for me to just be me… (All content Copyrighted Yeve Eeffoc 2008-2015)Archive for Debt Free
Dreams and Aspirations
For a long time (lets say for my whole life) I haven’t been sure of who I am.
Yes I am Yeve.
Yes I am a daughter.
Yes I am a mother.
Yes I am a pet owner.
Yes I am a home owner.
Yes I have a church and I love going.
Yes I have curly hair.
Yes I have brown hair.
Yes I am a wife.
But when it comes to things like dreams or aspirations or what I enjoy doing; I am clueless!
I used to read all the time and loved it, but not so much anymore (I still love it, I just don’t do it).
I have tried many things to see if I like them but I am so hypercritical of myself that I typically give up before I have given myself a chance.
When people ask me what I like doing or what my dreams or aspirations are I typically give them goals. You know those goals you make that I work towards and hope to reach someday (like being debt free)?! But those types of things are not things I can actually go out and do for enjoyment.
I guess these days most people would call their dreams and aspirations a bucket list. The things you hope you get to do before you die. The sad thing is I really don’t even have one of those. Yes there are a few things I would like to do but nothing that really makes up a list like I have seen from other people! Before I started the Bible study I am doing with The Girls, this whole bucket list thing bothered me. I felt bad that I knew so little about myself and wanted so little out of life. Now I am okay with this part because that was me comparing myself to others and to the world view and not God’s view.
I would still like to figure out what I enjoy, what God placed me here for, what my gifts are that were a gift from Him and I would love to grow in Him for me. Not to make my parents happy. Not to make my husband happy. Not to make my children happy. I want to grow in Him so that I am who He intended me to be. I want to find and fulfill the dreams and aspirations that I have been suppressing inside of me so long that they are buried!
I am Yeve.
I am a daughter to my parents and to God.
I am a mother and those monkeys are precious gifts from God.
I am blessed with fur babies from God.
I am blessed with a home from God.
I am blessed that I found a church, I love going and I have The Girls to do the Bible study with and that was a HUGE gift from God.
I have curly brown hair and that is a gift from God.
I am a wife to an amazingly funny man, we may butt heads but he makes me laugh and smile and I was missing that. He wants me to find myself and what I enjoy and He was an AMAZING gift from God.
I have a long way to go before I really know my dreams and aspirations but with the help of God, with having a relationship with Him, listening to Him, with working through the Bible study with The Girls, and discovering and digging dip within I will be who He intended me to be.
Getting Debt Free
We have attempted to be debt free many times in the past (almost) six years.
For some strange reason today this peace came over me when I was looking over Dave Ramsey’s stuff again.
There are seven steps and I have never really followed them 100% but we have always followed a bit of them.
This time though I am going to bust hump, after Jack in the Box is getting paychecks again, and get that 1st step taken care of. Step one is saving up $1000.00 emergency fund.
Since we are not totally sure how much his checks will be I am thinking it will take around between 4 and 6 months to save that amount. So by Mid-July next year, at the latest I am hoping, we will be taking all of the extra funds we were putting into an emergency fund and putting it toward our debts.
Step two is the snowball debt payoff. How long that will take I have no clue but I am feeling some relief tonight with this decision being made!
Day Three
Today as I sit in front of this computer I am thankful that we are able to pay our bills.
We have never made a lot of money. But we always strive to pay our bills each month. There are months where we have missed some. And so then the next month we are playing catch up but we know that we owe this money to whomever for services and goods.
It is hard to trust that God will provide everything but He always does and that includes the ability to pay what we owe each month.
We are currently working on getting everything we can paid off. Well everything that is an extra right now. All of our credit cards, vehicle payments, loans and legal bills.
I am hopeful that when our taxes come in next year we will be able to pay off our credit cards.
I have gone through much thought process (I have tried to run it by my Jack in the Box but he truly has no desire and his response is always the same, “Whatever you want to do or think is best.”). But I have come to the conclusion that if we get our credit cards paid off we are going to be much better off.
I thought about applying it to the new car loan. I thought about using it to get things done around the house. I thought about paying off the loan that we took out a couple of summers ago. But the fact of the matter is that our credit cards have the highest interest of anything we have outstanding right now.
So if we get those paid off in full (and when the new cards have been coming in – I have been cutting them up and throwing them away. Currently we only have one valid one in the house and that expires in February of next year I believe) we are going to have $300 plus extra per month to apply towards other bills.
I have lost my amortization sheet I had long ago. Haven’t used it in a while so the bookmark is missing and that is okay. But if we are paying towards other things an extra $300 a month, not even taking into account the interest we are looking at being able to be almost debt free in less than a year.
The only thing we will have to pay still is the Mortgage, Our Monthly Utilities, One Vehicle Payment and Student Loans.
It might seem like a lot that we will still be paying for but when I look at it – that looks so much better than what we are paying now.
So today I am completely thankful to God for providing us enough to pay our bills off and for us to be able to eliminate the debt we have taken on. We struggle like so many out there but we are making it because of Him.
Lovin and Living 