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Disclosure: This post contains some affiliate links. At no extra cost to you, I may be paid a small commission from sales via these links. Thank you for your support of my blog.

If you are new around these parts, the Mister and I took the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University course through our church last year. We have a goal to pay off half of our consumer debt this year. You can catch up on our journey by checking out our previous recaps:

• June 2016 update
• May 2016 update
• March/April 2016 update
• February 2016 update
• January 2016 update
• December 2015 update
• weekly FPU updates

July Budget

This month went surprisingly smoothly as far as the budget goes. While I was out of town, our water heater died and needed replacement. Fortunately, our plumber is a friend, so he’s can sometimes trade labor with the Mister and charge us for supplies.

We were able to cash flow the electrical work as part of the regular budget and use the emergency fund for the water heater itself. Thus, we’ve stepped back to Baby Step 1, and we’re rebuilding our baby emergency fund of $1000. I expect we’ll knock that out in August and be back to paying down the debt snowball in September.

As you can see from the image below, we rocked the extra income this month.

July Victories & Blessings

I had my trip to Chicago last month. I went to the bank the day I left before to get money for tolls. When the teller heard I was traveling, she offered to call financial services so my card wouldn’t be flagged, and I was able to say I had cash for the entire trip. Let me tell you – PAYING CASH for a trip feels really good.

Also, my Etsy shop Chasing Blue Jays got its first sale this month. Considering that I’m not actively promoting it at the moment because of work on the yarn bombing and getting ready for my black belt exam, it was fun to see a little money deposited into the business checking account.

August is a great time to make changes and plans for your life since so many people reevaluation this their situations with the start of the new school year. If you want to take control of your finances, I’d suggest reading The Total Money Makeover.

Want some more reading to improve your finances? Check out my suggestions of four books to improve your household finances.

What are your financial goals for 2016? If you’re working your way out of debt, share your victories with us in the comments.

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