My Story
Hello. My name is Sarah and I am a 33 year old Mum from Victoria, Australia. I am also a teacher and I love all things budgeting, planning and personal finance.
The wake up call that motivated myself and my partner to start our financial independence journey was when we started to pay a mortgage on our family home and also wanting to start a family. We knew that we would definitely have to change our money habits when paying off a mortgage and we didn’t want to bring children into this world where we couldn’t afford to buy them things or take them on memory-filled holidays and experiences.
Six years ago before the mortgage and the arrival of our son we were so carefree with our money. We would pay only the minimum amount on our consumer debts (which totalled more than $70,000), we saved just enough for a house deposit (having to pay LMI) and would buy whatever we wanted when we wanted. We were living a life well beyond our means and were always wondering why we couldn’t save or make a dent in our debts. Fast forward to today we have paid more than $80,000 in debt, have saved over $60,000 for different savings goals and paid off $90,000 off our mortgage. And it’s all thanks to ‘The Budget Planner’.
The story of The Budget Planner starts like many others. I just couldn’t find a budgeting method or tool that I could stick to! I tried percentages, cash envelopes, excel spreadsheets and the ‘no budget’ budget but none seemed to work. I wanted to feel in control of my finances. I wanted to create savings goals and actually achieve them. I wanted to become consumer debt free. I wanted to live a life without stress, limitations and guilt. So that’s when I created The Budget Planner!