In our Debt Payoff Update for September post we talked about how we started the 31-Day Spending Freeze and we had over 150 people take part in the freeze with us. You may not have known that our son suffered a severe burn right in the middle of the freeze, but we pressed on and decided that Adam will not be working much anymore. You know we’ve been seeking a minimalist lifestyle for about the last year, and it’s starting to pay off. Right now our main priorities are to be able to pay our bills, have healthy food for our family, and live debt free. (See all of our Debt Free Journey posts here).
After our son was burnt, we needed a nurse to help with dressing changes, managing his pain, taking him to the hospital two hours away, etc. Since my husband is a nurse, it was obvious to us that he needed to be at home even more. He has worked part-time for the last two years since our son was born, and he goes to a school for special needs children with his client, so he only worked a school schedule.
At the same time his client was not needing services as much, and was not going to be attending school regularly, so instead of taking on a new case, we decided he would work very minimally, like one day a week. He’s mostly still wanting to work here and there to maintain his sanity. I’m kidding, but those of you who stay at home know I’m really not. While this will slow down our ability to save for a new car and pay off our mortgage (See how to use the snowball or interest rate methods to pay off your debt), we believe it’s best to have someone home more often.
How we made changes this month to save and earn extra income while we are spending as little as possible:
- We completed the 31-Day Spending Freeze as a way to help motivate ourselves and others to save and not spend. This really helped us regain focus on living on one income, especially with our son needing more care.
- We were radically blessed with our blog last month, and received many sponsored content offers, which gave us an additional $600-$800 in income this month.
- Our Young Living business produced over $500 in extra income this month as well. We have started sharing our love for Essential Oils locally, and we have been so blessed by so many local families wanting to get healthy as well. We also continue to support over 300 oily family members nationwide.
- Right now we are planning for a debt free Christmas, and we would love to have you print out our free Holiday Binder for 2015.
- I am going to start tutoring some again this month, which will obviously help create extra income as well.
- We are trying to remain laser focused on not spending as much as possible. We did find out that our health insurance covered several meetings with a dietician, so we are taking steps to eat organic and more healthy everyday.
Prayer Requests & Praises:
- Please pray for the continued healing of our son’s foot.
- Please pray that we have wisdom on “Busyness” and know when we are too busy and need to cut back.
- Praises for last month’s surplus.
- Praises that we are getting the correct focus in place, especially for Christmas. That’s what it really is about, family, not giving grand gifts all of the time.
Comment below and let us know how you are doing on your debt free journey!
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