We have been trying to really focus on two things this year, 1) Paying down debt and 2) our giving of time and money to charity and to church and thus far, we haven’t done that bad, I don’t think. But what has really come out of the giving, is how great it feels to give to others.

Paying down debt – If we stay on track, we will have 3 cards paid off in 10 months and that will put us 1/3rd of the way to our goal. BUT and what is even more important than that, we will be able to start really putting a lot more towards down and finish up these credit cards a lot faster. In theory, we should be able to knock out all of our debt in less than 2 years. We have cut cable and that is saving us roughly $150 a month and then we have done a few other little things, like the Dollar Shave Club, we have started doing even more shopping at Aldi for produce and basic items and we are buying our meat in bulk from Wegmans, to name a few. But these savings should really start to add up and I was asked this week if I missed cable at all and I realized that I hadn’t thought about it, so no.

Giving – Giving to others is very important to both my wife and myself. We were both raised that it is better to give to others than to receive. So, in quickly looking over our finances, I realized that we are on track by the end of May to have already surpassed our giving totals for all of 2014. We have already committed $1,000 in extra giving, which does not factor into our giving to local charities and also to church.  And mind you, this is while we are paying down debt. But what is great about giving is that we are showing the boys that it is better to give to others, especially those that are less fortunate.

So far for our family goals, we are on schedule and actually ahead of schedule for our giving.