Friday, May 1, 2009

Transitions

We are debt free! All of our debts have been paid and it feels great! But now this is the 1st month that we do not owe any debts and we are going to start saving for our emergency fund.
But I find myself hesitating because I don't quite know what to do now. How much do we save, do we start to live a little, do we adjust our budget, or do we live exactly as we have been? Is it ok for us to start putting money into our travel fund again rather than throw it on our debt? Can we increase our fun money that we give ourselves for the month? I just feel torn. P and I have been so well disciplined that we even come in under budget with our envelope systems. I don't even feel like we are deprived at all.
But now that the burden of debt is gone, it is a little weird. We have been married for over 2 years and this is the 1st time in our marriage that we have not been in debt. I just need to sit down with My Total Money Makeover book and begin to read what Dave says about the Emergency fund.
Does anyone have any tips or suggestions for funding the E-fund and the new budget? Thanks for the help.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

read the book : )

Baby step #3 - fully funded emergency plan which is 3-6 months of living expenses saved.

Are you going to call into the show so you can scream "we're debt free" ?

that is really really cool. You should be extremely proud of yourselves.

Simplelivin' said...

CONGRATS on being debt free!!! That has to be such a wonderful feeling! I agree with dmoms, 3-6 months of living expenses should be saved. If you can continue to live how you where without feeling deprived go for it! If not, you now have to room to be more flexible, but don't go over board, you don't want to end up in debt again. :-) You just don't have to feel guilty about eating out at an expensive restaurant, or something. Enjoy it!!!

laura @ move to portugal said...

Congratulations on becoming debt free.

I agree with simplelivin, if you don't feel deprived keep going and save 3-6 months. What a lovely feeling that would be :)