One year ago today I was in a totally different place financially!  For the full story, take a look at my story about how I found Dave Ramsey.  Most Ramsey fans I tell it to call it providence or “meant to be.”  That post has alredy been written, so today I am going to take a look at the turn-around in my financial picture…and what a difference a year makes!

Everyone’s financial life is subject to Murphy’s Law, and mine this past year has been no exception:

• At the end of last January, my heat broke at the start of a cold snap.  It was 21F outside, and maybe 22F inside when we woke up on a Saturday morning.  Repair bill was $1140 when it was all said and done!  I had just put $1000 in my savings account ans my baby beginner emergency fund, and the first Murphy visit was more than that!  I’d like to say my first time paying cash for a real emergency was a peaceful thing…but I was spazzed.  The upside to this was actually fixing that thing has saved me $30-100 per month in utility expenses.
• In May I thought I heard a squealing when I braked on the Pizza Taxi.  I wasn’t completely sure because not only is my hearing a little off, but every weekend I feel a need to prove to Clarksville that I have at least one blown speaker in that car LOL  When I took it in for a brake inspection the verdict was both rotors, both drums, both sets of discs, and both sets of shoes needed replaced!  That’s definitely a safety issue…so $538 to completely replace the brakes on all four wheels.  This time, I felt good as I just PAID it.  My son was there with me, and asked if we could afford that much.  It gave me a wonderful opportunity to explain the emergency fund concept to my teenager!
• Just this month, the Pizza Taxi died out on delivery with some form of electrical problem.  Total bill this time including the tow was $509, and provided hubby with proof our financial plan is working and working well.  This time I cash flowed the “emergency” (which was really more of an annoyance) and didn’t even touch the true emergency fund.

That was the bad news for this past year…now for the good:

• I paid off a personal line-of-credit loan at my credit union, $500 + a little interest.  This had been used for last fall’s tuition..or was it the spring semester before that…?
• I paid off the Pizza Taxi a month early, even though it was not a pizza taxi just yet.  Not having that car note helped rebuild the emergency fund after the heat breaking.
• I paid off Thanksgiving and Christmas that I had put on the Chase MasterCard with the tax return, before the 0% interest had expired.  Whew!  Dodged a bullet there…!
• I paid off American Express, even though they tried their darnedest to make that as difficult as possible.  I detail their dirty tricks in my “Three Paid Cards” post.
• I paid off the AAFES Star Card…just like that.  That one was impressive even to hubby!
• We’ve paid off at least $15,000 of hubby’s truck note.  We started the year off at least $7000 upside down in it…now we only have $7167.03 left to go, and we will be debt free but the house!
• Not only did I pay off the LOC from last year’s tuition, but I have paid for two semesters’ tuition plus textbooks of college for this year … CASH.

Holy cow, that is a serious turnaround in just one year’s time!!  Last year I was scared and worried and majorly stressed.  This year I am extremely optimistic about my financial future, and that peace of mind is hard to quantify in monetary terms … but to use the advertising slogan, it’s PRICELESS.