This may not sound like much of a win, but for me this is an exciting day. I could now take off 1 month of work and still pay all the bills and expenses. For years, every time I had between $2000-$3000, emergencies would happen, and I’d have to spend it and start over. This year, emergencies still came up—medical procedures, surgery, and body work done on two cars twice (due to broken tree branches falling). Yet somehow I now have over $5000 saved. I wanted to save more, and was feeling frustrated that all the unexpected things came up…but I thought I’d take this moment to celebrate my progress. Better to feel happy for what I’ve done than sad about what I haven’t!