Murphy has Moved into the Spare Bedroom.

I'm sure you know Murphy.  Just when you are on a roll and making progress, she comes along and derails the train.  And yes, I strongly believe that Murphy is a woman. It's always the women who want to throw a wrench in everyone's plans.  The men I know don't usually care enough to rain on anyone's parade.  No, she is definitely a  woman.  So, how do I know Murphy so well?  She has officially crashed my party.  Our debt snowball was about to take off down the hill at a speed we had never seen before. We had a few large jobs that were about to be completed, and we planned to spend that money paying off all but our last two debts.  Just imagine!  (Insert silent moment here as we imagine what could have been.)

Then we found out my truck needed a big repair.  New axle seals and a control arm?  No biggie.  We put about $750 into it.   Oh, wait- the water heater is on it's last leg.  That's going to be another $750.  Okay, good thing we've got the cash flow to cover it.  At least we don't have to tap into the emergency fund.  Oops,  the power steering is out in one of the work vans.  That will cost $810.  Bye Bye debt snowball for April.  Uh-oh, another work van needs $540 in repairs.  And of course, we can't leave out the last work van- it will get lonely.  It is now leaking power steering fluid and antifreeze, and is going to the shop at the end of the week.  Bye Bye emergency fund!  It's was good to know you!  I enjoyed the time we spend together!  Hopefully we'll meet again someday soon!

It seems that every year we hit a snag around springtime and usually it stops us dead in our tracks.  This is the kind of thing that in the past we would have thrown our hands in the air and given up.  The battle by now is usually lost.  Not this year.  I took a day to mourn what could have been, but I'm going to be thankful that we had the emergency fund to cover what we couldn't cash flow and keep on trucking.  First order of business now is to refund the emergency fund.  After that it's back to the debt snowball.  Thankfully, we have incurred no new debt.

I'm hoping that Murphy has decided to move on and this will be the last of our expensive repairs for a while.  I'm anxious to get back on track kicking this debt's butt. 

Oh- also new debt totals coming soon.  We are again coming to the end of a round of Financial Peace University, which is a fabulous course that gives you the knowledge and skill you need to take control of your financial future.    (learn more here)   We lead it a few times a year, and each cycle we calculate our debt totals at the beginning and end. 

Always fabulous,