March Goals- Time to Start Saving
user_icon   Each month, we sit down with our coaches and talk about the next steps needed to achieve our overall goals. Our goals for the month of March are to 1.) pay off another credit card
2.) begin putting money in our savings account. Until now we focused on having $1000 in our emergency fund. We figured building our savings account was a goal that was at least another year or two away. However, after talking with our coaches we began to rethink our plan. We used to think that having the required $100 in our savings account was pretty good. Like most people we never thought we would have a reason to need more than $1000 saved up. Now, we hope to save up $2000 in savings by the end of this year.
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Posted by Alicia Yahaya, February 19, 2012 at 7:11 PM | Add a Comment
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Peer Pressure
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Although peer pressure is usually associated with high school and teaching youth about being an individual, it never really ever goes away. Since the start of the Financial Makeover we have had a lot of support but pressure to live your life care free still indirectly affects your morale. One example is at work when you are invited to go out or order lunch. Your co-workers are genuinely being nice but it is so tempting when you hear the destinations or smell the enticing aromas. The number one thing I have learned from our coaches is to keep your goals visible and be accountable to them. Dana's friendly reminder emails of what goals we are striving for in the month and our poster size goal board which is displayed above our fireplace is so reassuring of the big picture. Small victories are important to so that is why I portioned my dinner from the night before and brought it into work the next day instead of my normal box lunch. Everyone was jealous of the tantalizing smell of steak which filled the office! Count that as a morale victory for team Yahaya!
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Posted by Abdul Yahaya, February 10, 2012 at 12:34 PM | Add a Comment
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Dining Out on a Budget
user_icon   Dining out can really put a strain on any budget especially when you are celebrating birthdays! We recently celebrated a family member's birthday at Longhorn Steak House, which was actually our suggestion surprisingly enough because they are not the cheapest dining out option. The reason we wanted to go to this restaurant was we received a $25 dollar gift card as a Christmas gift. Instead of immediately going out and spending it we held on to it for this specific purpose. In addition to the gift card we found a coupon in the Sunday paper for $4 dollars off the bill. We were able to feed 3 adults and 1 child and only had to spend $32 dollars out of our own pocket. We took into account a valuable lesson from the Financial Makeover group session which was ordering water instead of soft drinks to keep the price down. I was really excited because I can honestly say, this was the first time I had ever used a coupon at a restaurant!
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Posted by Abdul Yahaya, February 4, 2012 at 7:45 PM | Add a Comment | Read Comments (1)
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Tax Returns and February Goals
user_icon   Two weeks ago, our Financial Makeover was getting off to a rocky start! Although we did not have a good financial safety net in place, we were able to land on our feet. We had begun paying into Aflac disability insurance last year, and it supplemented my income during my time off this month, which was truly a blessing.

Now that we have made it through the month of January, it's time that we start focusing on our February goals. I love to get our taxes done as soon as possible. We went to The Professional Group to get our taxes done and were able to get them done on January 27 since both Abdul and I were off. We were so glad to hear that we would be getting a refund and immediately thought of padding our savings with it. Of course nothing ever goes as planned LOL (i.e. Avery needs new clothes, my car needs a tune up, etc.), but at least these things won’t set us back.

Our goal for the month of February is to pay off two of our credit cards. One has a low balance, and the other one has no interest for 6 months. The 6 month promotion is almost up and we don’t want the 100’s of dollars in interest to compile on our balance. It won’t be easy to pay off $1300 in one month but we are going to do everything we can to meet these goals!
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Posted by Alicia Yahaya, February 1, 2012 at 10:14 PM | Add a Comment
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Cutting the Cable
user_icon   In addition to coping with the disappointment of our lost pregnancy we also had to decide whether or not to terminate our cable subscription. Now, in no means are these things comparable in the emotions felt, but both were tough, one was a voluntary decision and one was involuntary. We had to deliberately decide to stop paying $130 dollars per month for cable in which we may have used 25% of the services. We decided to take advantage of an Internet promotion for $25 dollars a month and now subscribe to Netflix and Hulu each for $8 dollars per month. This is a savings of over $1000 dollars a year! After 3 weeks we have not felt any cable withdrawals. We still get basic cable for free with an antenna which picks up stations over the air. Let me tell you, antennas have come a long way since the time of grandma’s bunny ears on top of the TV. We still get HD quality reception and most importantly we get our favorite station, CBS, for our Sunday night lineup of shows! This has been very gratifying because we feel we gave up very little yet gained a lot financially.
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Posted by Abdul Yahaya, January 25, 2012 at 11:19 PM | Add a Comment
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March Goals- Time to Start Saving
Peer Pressure
Dining Out on a Budget
Tax Returns and February Goals
Cutting the Cable

 

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January 2012