Happy 2016 everyone! I don’t know about you all, but I am eager to see what the new year will bring. We are planning a lot of exciting changes here at Casa Frugal in 2016, so I thought I would take this opportunity to update you on happenings here!
Also, there is a reader survey at the end of this post. I would LOVE to get your opinions so that I can continue to tailor the content of this blog to your needs. Your opinion is important, so please take a couple minutes at the end to complete the survey. As a bonus, everyone who completes the survey will be entered in a drawing for a $10 Starbucks gift card!
Update on New Happenings at Casa Frugal
Those of you who are long time readers of this blog may remember that last spring the hubs and I were presented with an agonizing decision. We’ve wanted to move back to our favorite mountain town forever, and finally last spring the hubs was offered a job there. If you’d like you can read this post and this post for the details, but to make a long story short we ended up having to turn it down because it involved a 25% pay cut for him, and we still had quite a bit of student loan debt to pay off.
We were SO bummed. We’ve wanted to move back there ever since we left almost ten years ago. I think that the employer was bummed too; they seemed to really like Mr. CMF and wanted him to come work there.
Kicking It into Gear
Once we experienced the pain of looking our dreams in the face and having to turn them down because of debt, we seriously cranked up our efforts to get the student loans paid off. We redoubled our efforts to slash fixed expenses, sold things we didn’t need, and overall increased efforts on our side hustles. Mr. CMF also picked up a few more hours at work, and I started shopping around for a part time job (I’ve been a SAHM and blogger since our daughter was born 18 months ago).
As a result, we’ve made huge progress on the student loan debt since last spring. It’s not gone yet, but at the rate we are going, we anticipate that we can get it gone by this summer 2016. Yay!!
Reconsidering
So… once we realized that by giving our absolute BEST EFFORT toward debt repayment, we could potentially get it gone by later this year, Mr. CMF went back to the employer that he had turned down. He asked if they could potentially hold the position for him until this spring, 2016 (giving us a chance to pay as much money as possible on our debt while he still has a higher-paying job). And they said YES!
So- we’re moving! This April we will finally get to realize our dream of moving back to our favorite mountain town, that we were so sad to leave almost exactly ten years ago.
But Wait… There’s More
As a crazy bonus, through my shopping around for a part time job, I stumbled upon a cool opportunity in the very area that we are moving to (a place where we’d thought I would have trouble finding a job in my field). I need to do a little more training, but it’s actually something that I can start doing now, before we even move.
We are so happy that somehow it is all finally coming together. And that we will get to start the next chapter of our lives ALMOST student loan debt free (we’ll be pretty close by April, but probably won’t have them totally gone until later in the summer). We’re excited to be able to raise our daughter in our favorite place and get to take her hiking and mountain biking and skiing. We are incredibly grateful for this opportunity.
It’s not all puppies and roses… we will be sad to leave friends and especially Mr. CMF’s parents, who currently live in the same town as us and have been the best (free) babysitters that we could ever ask for! However, they are now considering moving (to the same town as us) too, so we will see if that pans out.
Reader Survey
So, that’s our news! Now, onto the survey. Your opinion is important, so please take a couple minutes to complete the survey. Everyone who completes the survey will be entered in a drawing for a $10 Starbucks gift card! The survey will be open until January 25, 2016 and the winner will be notified after that. Thank you in advance for your participation. 🙂
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Looks like 2016 is going to be a great year! Congrats and good luck!
Thanks!
With you and your husband having the drive to get to achieve your financial goals together, I’m sure you all will be alright. Good luck in 2016 and I wish you both the best of luck.
Thanks so much Petrish!
Awesome, guys! It sounds like maybe things will turn out even BETTER this way.
We think so! We are really looking forward to the coming months!
Congrats on the jobs! I’m glad you got the best of both worlds: the job he wanted and the debt pay-down you needed.
We’re having to do without $766 a month this year, so we’re trying to figure out more ways to cut and how to be more vigilant in some areas we’ve been backsliding on. Fingers crossed.
Uh oh! That’s going to be an adjustment for sure, but I know you guys are pretty savvy when it comes to saving money. Any chance of picking up some of the slack with another side gig or part time job?
Dee,
Awesome story – glad you guys are able to return to your dream locale. It really does pay off to get creative and not give up on your dreams it seems 🙂 Good luck to you and the hubs with the new jobs!
Thanks Derek. It’s been a long time coming, and yes, we have definitely gotten creative in making our dreams come true here! Best of luck to you this year as well.
It is truly awful that you had to move away from your dream because of financial problems. It definitely is painful to have to let go of the place that you adore and love because of such issues! It is great that you’ve dealt with the situation in the best possible way. I am happy to hear that you are soon going to move back to the lovely mountain village and have the life you dream of! Thanks for sharing! I wish a great year!
Thank you!