February 2025 Debt Free Journey Update

Two months down (of the year AND our debt-free journey)!

I am very late writing this debt-free-journey update — it’s almost April! But I am getting it done, so we can look back on the progress and see the whole journey.

Read January’s update here.

Read all of our DFJ updates here!

This post may contain some affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these links, I may earn a small commission at no cost to you, which helps support my blog. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Thank you!

February Recap

It was another tight month. We unfortunately dipped into our emergency fund quite a bit to make it work, but the month ended on a high note because we got our tax refund!

This month, we had several birthdays and Valentine’s Day. We tried to keep the amounts we spent on these events low, and our family managed to keep our eating out expenses low — this is one of the budget categories that can easily get out of hand if we aren’t careful!

Months ago, I made plans with my mom to go to the American Girl Store on a day in February, so I did spend a little over $100 shopping this month. I tried to keep my spending extremely reasonable, but I wanted to purchase a few things for my daughter while we were at a store we don’t get to visit often. Even though I tried planning ahead to make sure I had the money I needed, it feels like we are always running out of money somehow — even though I track EVERY expense!! I had to dip into our savings to make up for what we needed this month.

I decided to give a little less to church this month because it was a tight month, and we knew our tax refund was going to arrive soon and we could make up for it.

Thankfully, we received our tax refund right at the end of the month, so that enabled us to finish Baby Step 1 (save our starter emergency fund) and dump a large amount on our debt! We also gave a portion of it to our church, bought some much needed clothes, bought a microwave after going over two months without one, and stashed a little cash in our sinking fund envelopes.

I think my husband has his paycheck deductions set up correctly, so I believe we receive a huge tax refund because we make a lower income and have four young dependents in our home.

Note: Since we received our tax refund at the end of the month, the stats for our February budget do not include the tax refund. It is included in our March budget, which I will share in our March post. However, you will see the change in our debt balance, since I calculate that on the first of every month! There is a difference because my husband’s pay periods don’t line up perfectly with the month.