1 year away

My last post was 364 days ago.  I have no good excuse for my absence other than I got pregnant and had a beautiful baby on January 12, 2014.  My brain is a little more fuzzy but my passion for getting out of debt is still going strong.

Unfortunately, by saving a significant amount of money during my pregnancy, just in case, we got far behind on our debt payoff schedule.  We're back to putting extra money toward the mortgage each month but with daycare and other life expenses we're not able to do this as aggressively as before.  Still, we've made progress. 

Thankfully, Cindel Mae was born healthy and the extra savings we amassed was quickly put to pay down the mortgage. May 2013 we were at $45,340.56 and currently we owe $22,851.51.  This month we were only able to put a little over $300 extra towards our goal which was disappointing but not unexpected.

I'm dreaming of the day when we get jobs in Lansing and put our condo up for sale.  I have a Pinterest board going with all the projects I want to tackle on our property before listing it for sale.  I would love to sell it instead of sending all our extra money towards the mortgage.  I torture myself by looking up apartment listings and homes for rent in Lansing.  I'll be losing my job at the end of the year and can only count on 20 weeks of unemployment benefits.  We won't have to pay for daycare if I can't find work but we will have to endure a lot more financial stress.  We'll be able to cover our bills with my husband's salary and luckily since the last time I wrote, he was transferred into a permanent position with the State of Michigan.

If I strike out in my job search, I will be sad that I'm not contributing to our goals of becoming debt free and going to France next year but I'll have a wonderful consolation prize in being able to stay at home with my sweet daughter.