The Dream Jar

The picture is not much, I know that, but it is what is inside the jar that counts. We are still working out way through the Dave Ramsey baby step process, currently we are working on step number 3, the fully funded emergency fund. We had this step completed, but then had to tap into it in order to purchase our car, and not go back into debt. So the last few months have been filled with us trying to save up in order to get our E-fund back up to 100%. We are close, very close in fact, just one or two more months from having it fully funded.

Now, let me go back to the jar, the Dream Jar. This is the beginning of our home fund. We have decided that we want to pay cash for a house. 100% cash, no down payment, no mortgage, nothing. So the small amount you see in the jar, is the beginning of this fund. Obviously, we have a long way to go, and we are just getting started, be we have already saved over 100 bucks just in change, and rolling over our monthly cash budget at the end of the month. Once our e-fund is knocked out, then we will begin to save for the house more aggressively. But for now, each time I look at the dream jar I get excited. We managed to take a step, all but a small one, to our dream without really even trying. We have talked about paying cash for a house for a while now, and honestly, in the back of my mind it always seemed kind of like a pipe dream, something we wanted to do, but I didn't really think it would/could ever happen. It just seemed to crazy, to big, to out there.

Then recently Crystal, over at MoneySavingMom, did a series of blogs about her families quest to pay cash for a house. They saved for years, and they just bought their first home with cash!! How awesome is that?????? Cash for a house!!! Her story totally inspired me, and made me realize that we can do this too. It will be a hard and long process, and it will try our patience, but in the end, it will totally be worth it. I believe that. I was listening to one of Dave's podcast the other day and he said "100 % of homes paid in full never get repossessed." Then he laughed and in his sarcastic funny way he talked about how he had done some extensive research to get the facts on that statistic. So yes, it is a dream and it is a pretty big dream, but that is the point of dreams right? Dream big, dream really big, reach higher than you think you can, aim to go further than you think possible.

So here goes!