We talked about future goals the other day, but what about past goals.
Tell us about how you saved money and thus reached a goal.

I think this will remind ourselves of how much we have accomplished and inspire others that it can be done.

Cutting back from all the "see it buy it" mentality allowed me to stay home with the kids for 5 whole years now.

We paid an extra year into the mortgage.

We paid for half of the house renovations from money saved during my frugal period without having to dip into savings.
And the rest was paid for out of savings (money saved from when I was working) instead of loans or credit cards.

We pay extra on our mortgage each month.

We're paying for graduate school for me as I go...no student loans

We paid my medical expenses--over $25000 last year--from savings.

We have never carried credit card debt of any kind.

I set aside $117.00 each pay check and put it into a GIC to pay for my car insurance last year.

I lost 30 lbs. after my wedding. (AFTER my wedding. :P)

I left an unhappy marriage and moved away from an unhappy man. I am now with a wonderful man who is also my best friend and have gained my independance.

This year I'm doing the same thing, but $40 of that is going to the car insurance and $77 of that is going into savings.

Dh's illness means we're a one income family. He's a stay at home dad.

We've paid off one of our houses.

Car is paid off.

decreased our debt from over $150,000 to less than $50,000 (includes the mortgage on our current house)

We have money in savings.

We know that we can buy groceries, gas for the cars.

Automatically taking out $60 out of my check and not touching except for one time. Had to have my yearly maintenance on the car.

Paid off dental bill.

Putting extra money on the car to get it paid off in three years instead of five.

Staying away from rummage sales and stores. Only get what I need at the stores and not browse around in the stores.

Boy, I can look back as far as the kids were little. I was a single(Divorced) mother with three babies the boys are 18 months apart and there is 21 months between my second and third. I had NOTHING ! I was luckey to keep food on the table and hope and prayed that the lights would never get shut off at the wrong time. Now after years of struggling I have a wonderful husband who loves my children like his own. We are blessed with the gifts that god gave us and the hard work that DH and myself has done throughout our time together.

Paid off our 15 yr. mortgage in 10 years.:)

Always pay extra on the mortgage

Paid up a year head on my car..and only 10 payments left

Started a college fund for our son (we are adopting) even though he won't be here for a year or 2 yet:loop:

Paid off the garage

We've paid down debt that amounted to over $160K (or so, I need to look at the exact figures again, it's been a while and it could be more like 180) which included paying off our mortgage 11 years early. Bought and paid cash for 2 new to us autos, done numerous rennovations to our home and put 3 kids through college --- all debt free. (This is all in the time frame of about 8 years)

This year I lost nearly 25 lbs and reached my goal weight. This means I also learned to eat less and save a bit on my grocery bill
I've been able to reach my senior year of college without incurring any debt
My marriage with a wonderfully frugal man has grown more stronger. The fact that he is receptive to my experiments with money saving ideas (no matter how crazy) is testament of his love for me

We paid of 45000 in credit cars and cars. We are saving thoiusands redoing our floors ourselves.

we had to come up with a whole new set of goals and budget since we bought the new house and have new responsibilities.

we had paid off the mortgage and credit cards and everything right before we got the house so starting fresh.

it was a huge relief to start over with a new debt etc...but its also easier.

Still working on getting debt down, since my meds and trips to specialist my budget has been blown, but once all my health problems are treated and taken care of, i should be able to get things back on track, I have kept the food bill under $200 a week this is for 8 people and includes, food, nonfood, pet supplies ect I should call it household expensens instead of grocery budget, have cut phone bill, cable, bills down and still working on water and other utilities, have been hanging all clothes on line, need to set down this week and rework budget I have to stay on top of things with kids out of school. we are still remodiling the house, adding insulation should help lower utilitie bills. have had more no spend days then spend days also have worked on not eating out as often, but the trips to specilasit eats up gas budget working around that hope to start making more payments on hosue to get it paid off sooner. one step at a time....

This is a kind of past/current goal - we continue plugging away at our mortgage. First 10K down, 90 more to go.

It's taken a little over a year and a half, but I've paid off over $20,000 in debt. I have a balance one one credit card of less than $150, and I already have that much set aside to make my final payment and be debt free!

I remember feeling discouraged when I sat down with pen and paper and figured how long it was going to take me to get to this point, but I was determined to do it. At first, it seemed like an incredibly slow process that would never end. But as I made each payment I seemed to gather momentum--in fact, I've managed to pay everything off, while contributing each month to an emergency fund, in about a year less than originally projected. I found things to sell for extra payments on my debts and was also able to pick up additional work hours.

Even so, I feel like I've been walking around with a terrible, sick feeling in my stomach for the last eighteen months, scared to death that something would happen to prevent me from paying off my debts. I am determined to NEVER allow myself to be that vulnerable financially again. While I wish I hadn't gotten to that point, I am so grateful that I have learned a valuable lesson.

I have:

*Paid off my car one year early
*Fully funded my ROTH every year since 2000
*Paid off $10,000 out of the $17,625 I owed on my student loans
*Bought a nice living room set with cash

DH and I have:

*Paid for our entire wedding, ourselves
*Almost paid off almost $13,000 worth of CC debt in less than a year. We have about $2500 left and it will be gone next month.
*Survived on my income alone for 9 months


Go us!!

Just wanted to add congratulations to all those who have posted here.

I have never posted here before---just lurked and learned. Yet, reading the posts here and a few other places by likeminded people had a huge impact in keeping me focused on my goals. I just want to say thank you. You have no idea what an impact reading about some of your experiences (both the temporary setbacks and successes) has had---I'm sure not just for me but for others as well. So thanks.

Did a complete kitchen remodel without taking out a loan or putting it on CC

Refi'd the farm to lock in a better rate, paid off enough in extra just since March to cut more than a year off the end of the loan.

Paid off all but one of my CC's and that card is 0% interest.

Funded an emergency fund, started a fund for a newer vehicle for hubby, started a vacation fund and have enough put back already for taxes and insurance through the end of the year.

Cut our grocery bill by more than 1/2.

kj

Lol...oh to think back. Its a good thing to do for sure!

Paid off $1000 in c.c. debt
$300 goes into savings every month.
Took my credit score from the 500's up to 781 as of yesterday!
Was able to buy a house instead of renting

~ Paid cash for our car.
~ Paying extra on mortgage.
~ Paying into a retirement fund for each of us (didn't have these before).
~ Able to help with dd's university indirectly (groceries and transportation).
~ Able to travel.

Jean

Wow to all of you. Your accomplishments are inspiring. Since joing this site in March, we have joined my DH 401K, 6% going in, had dropped out of it for years, and years, so this was a secure feeling to DH to join again, also, DD had surgery and we have thousands in medical bills, but have paid off $2000 in the last few month, opened two savings accounts, one for EF and another for house repairs, vacations, blow money, etc. and also put $25 a month ia another account. Started Dave Ramsey's plan in March. I have also saved lots of money in groceries, don't spend nearly like I did, and visit thrift stores for items about once a month depending on cash flow.