a budget finish line

I frequently have thought our budget goals were much like my half marathon training. Slow and steady rewards, occasional vomit-inducing long runs and absolute joy when crossing the finish line. When it came to budgeting, my initial reaction was a dramatic fit of tears (you want me to do what?!). Then we created a viable plan that wouldn't make us crazy but still kept us on track. And then we suffered the challenge of sticking to it.

Tomorrow we'll reach a milestone, which calls for a celebratory update.

- We've paid off almost $10,000 on our second mortgage by paying five times the monthly minimum payment.

- We took a babymoon trip to Belize using only funds from our travel savings account and not dipping into other accounts. And we have money left over to start saving for the many "meet the baby" trips to come this fall and spring.

- We still managed to put a significant amount in our three savings accounts (travel, money market, emergency) each month. We had a detailed budget plan to stick to until we reached the milestone a pretty lofty goal for the balance in our main savings account. And tomorrow we will hit that amount thanks to some hard work by the hubs and a lot of budget dedication.

At the end of the month we're moving into a rental house that is $65 more in rent per month plus a bit higher utility bills ($27 is hard to beat). Plus we have to budget for daycare, continued graduate school tuition bills, a high-efficiency, cloth-diapering friendly washer and dryer and you know, stuff babies need. (Facts I am totally NOT obsessing about...)

So now it's time for a new training plan, this one probably at the marathon level (and a new running goal, too?). We'll have new goals, a new budget and then new rewards. But for now, yay! We done good!