Extra Income From A Stay At Home Mom

While browsing the web and reading PF blogs and their financial goals for 2008, it occurred to me that I hadn't yet added up all the extra income that I was able to earn in 2007.

So, here it is: $4,418.00!

I am pretty happy with that figure (earnings are from May 2007 - Dec. 2007). As a stay at home Mom, until I started on the Dave Ramsey financial plan, I hadn't really put any effort into earning money. My attention was on saving money by getting good deals, etc.

I still need to focus on the saving side, but this past year showed that I can earn some extra money also with a little effort. So, this year I will try to do both. I am focusing on saving money on groceries (combing coupons and sales, stockpiling, cooking from scratch) and earning money with my home based handcrafted jewelry business (though I will keep my part time job at the church nursery too).

Although I am pleased with the extra $4,418 that I earned, it did get me thinking about if all that money was paid on the debts.

So, we had a snowball of $1,100 a month and we were "on plan" for 11 months, so that equals $12,100. Add to that the $4,418 that I earned and you get $16,518.

Well, now that I have done the math, it looks pretty good. We lowered our total debt by $14,000, and that figure doesn't include interest we paid. Given that we pay around $200 a month in interest, the figure of $16,518 seems just about right.

I guess that most of the extra income I earned was paid to debts. This makes me happy!