March Goals 2019 – End of Month Review

March Goals

• Pay off Credit Card #10
• Pay on Loan
• Save Money
• File Our Taxes
• Continue Decluttering
• Further my education about homeschooling

We made some huge decisions about our future travel plans this month. It wasn’t on our goal list but we found that our conversations turned to RV and travel trailer options often. We realized that it was something that we were nervous about. We needed to figure it out before we were going to be able to comfortably continue our preparations. I get stressed out by things like this. I feel like they are constantly hanging over me. We talked about nothing else over the course of this month. We finally decided on an SUV and travel trailer. We will be buying a used SUV and an older travel trailer that we can renovate to fit our family needs and personal style. We have a couple of things we need to do before we begin shopping but the endless mental debate I was having with myself into the wee hours has finally ended for now. Making this choice was a huge relief. I can plow through anything if I have a set course but the daunting act of trying to figure out the right choice for something huge and important can leave me spinning in circles for days, or even weeks. Having this behind us, for better or worse, allows me get back on track and work the plan again.

We paid off credit card #10. This was our final credit card! We are so excited to be done with this. Those ten small payments a month have made a huge difference in our snowball. We have a couple loans to pay off and then our focus will change to saving for our travel trailer and SUV. It’s taken a ton of work to get to this point but it’s worth the effort.

We didn’t make much of a difference in the loan. We plan to pay it off by the end of April. We are going on a trip in the beginning of April and prepaid for our hotel this month. We didn’t want to chance not finding a room last-minute that had everything we needed/wanted at a decent price. This was in our budget for April and that will give us some additional funding to go toward this loan.

We have found a few ways to cut down our budget. We went grocery shopping at Aldi last week to see if it’s cheaper and it is on many items. We are working on our personal spending which is still way too high. We still eat out and go for coffee way too often. We spend money on dumb stuff that is not helping us toward our goals. We are seriously considering trying a zero spending challenge for a period of time because it would make a huge difference. It would majorly suck in the short-term but it could potentially save us a small fortune. We may try a week or a month to see what happens.

We just filed our taxes finally. We are getting back a small return that will go straight towards whatever step we are on in our priority list at that time.

Decluttering became a huge focus this month. We have an extra room in our basement that is dedicated to the things that we will be selling. We sort through a closet, a drawer, a shelf, or a box from the basement or garage whenever we have a few minutes. We separate out everything into one of five categories: keep, process, sell, donate, and trash/recycle. We have made it through a decent amount of stuff and took a load to the donation center. We are hoping to be done with going through most of our stuff by the end of May. That begins yard sale season in this area and we plan to have a few this summer. We have a lot of stuff! A lot more stuff than we originally realized!

We learned a little more about homeschooling. I read a few books and many blog posts. I learned about laws in different states. We are considering buying a small house in Indiana to use as a home base. I wanted to read up on homeschooling laws because we currently don’t live there and I didn’t know much about it.

Do you know that moment when you have been working on something for a while and suddenly it gains momentum? That was this month for us. Everything went from something we had been talking about to something that was really happening in our near future. The feel of the dream has changed from a beautiful daydream to a crazy reality. It has changed how we are approaching things. It’s easier to sacrifice for a dream when it starts to feel more real.

How was your month? Anything amazing? Please share below. We love hearing from you!