Half way through January, how are we doing?

I think I was a bit off in my initial debt thermometer. The current debt is around $145,000. I don't think I was including the mobile home loan and the interest that has accrued on various other loans.

Also, just made a mobile home loan payment of $350 so my total is $1269 to debt so far.

This month, I will be paying $3800 towards the car ($300 normal payment + $1000 leftover from student loan refund + $2500 from savings). This means that the car will be paid off by March, so exciting!!

We are half way through January and after taking our financial "temperature", we are doing fine in most areas but our biggest problem area is still food. I've reduced our food budget to way below what it used to be. We are on the 17th and have already spent $200 of our $200 alloted for "eating out". We still have about $150 left out of $300 for grocery. So, the rest of the month I'm going to be living on PB&J and leftovers and we are going to have to really limit when we eat out. I know we will go over the $200 but I want to keep it to a minimum. My goal next month is to shoot for $180 eat out budget.

Either way we are making progress. Our old lifestyle would have us spending up to $500 on eating out alone every month. I don't know how we did that but when a meal for 2.5 people on average is about $25 after tip then it adds up. Plus, fast food and snacking will kill your budget over time.

Our goal for the total money makeover was to use this spring as a training period to adjust to a new lifestyle and mindset. Come June - it hopefully will be all out gazelle intensity debt payoff time.