It's June! Lets Get Out of Debt with Dave Ramsey

[mtm]

Alright everyone, June marks the halfway mark to the year, lets go gazelle this month.

These are the Baby Steps:

Pre-Step 1: Get current on your debts and do a budget
0.1 Commit to NEVER borrow $$$ again
0.2 Talk with spouse and get him/her on the same page as you concerning finances.
0.3 Do a written budget
0.4 Temporarily stop all retirement contributions
0.5 Get current on all the basics (Shelter, Food, Utilities, Basic clothing)
0.6 Amputate "toys" (bikes, boats, ATV's etc) if they will keep you from completing the snowball within 12 months
0.7 Cut lifestyle (Cut CATV, Cellphone, Regular phone "extra's", Internet, Eating out, etc) and/or take second job if $1000 EF will take more than 30-90 days.
0.8 Get current on ALL bills

BS1 $1,000 to start an Emergency Fund
1.1 Chop up/freeze CC's (You have an EF now)
1.2 Get Health insurance NOW if in the US (chances of getting sick w/ major medical bills are larger than that of death)
1.3 Get Life insurance NOW if you have considerable debt/your family couldn't make it financially if you died.
1.4 Amputate cars that you can't pay off within 24 months
1.5 Consider raising insurance deductables to $500 or $1000

BS2 Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball
2.0 Do the debt snowball, paying all your debts from lowest BALANCE to highest.
2.1 You can take your first vacation since finding Dave if you can pay cash for it (no using the EF !!!)

BS3 Three to six months of expenses in savings
3.1 Start car replacement fund
3.2 Save up 20% for home purchase OR pay down existing mortgage to the point you can drop PMI.
3.3 Start furniture or other non-essential stuff replacement fund

BS4 Invest 15 percent of household income for retirement

BS5 College funding for children

BS6 Pay off home early

BS7 Build wealth and give! Invest in mutual funds and real estate



Here's the link to Dave Ramsey's website:

www.daveramsey.com

Please join in!

[mtm]

If you need added or removed from the list, or I got your details wrong just let me know and I'll fix it.

Pre-Step 1
dfunk98
Miasmamma

BS#1: Save up $1000
2lilsweetfoxes
Contrariety
crunchymomof2
dex_millie
Evenstar
fairydust020409
JamieB
JenniferH
JustKiya
KnittingKara
Krisis
Ksenia
lj2blessed
mamabain
mommaknowsbest
neveryoumindthere
Sihaya
stellarae
teenyToona
Tryingforbaby

BS#2: Pay off all Debt (except the mortgage)
100%Mom
AFwife
AllieFaye
astar326
Bluegoat
ColoradoMama
Contrariety
excitedtobeamom
FeelingBlessed
goldfishkate
HappyMommy2
herwitsend
hollytheteacher
indie
jeliphish
jjawm
kavita
killick
LittleBirdy
lizziebits
llamalluv
major_mama11
mamabain
mamimapster
MomtoWilmo
my2girlz
Nickarolaberry
okapi
onlygirls
onthemove
Pernillep
p1gg1e
PluggingAway
Rev1053
samandhenrysmom
thenaturefreak
tricia80
triscuitsmom
twin_mama
whiddle

BS#3: Build up to 3-6 months of savings
akichan
annethcz
beansmama
Crunchy*VT*Mom
KailuaMamatoMaya
mammamo
maryjane
MCsMom
mtm
phatui5
sarafi
Softmama
Stone_Fence
yasinsmama

BS#4
Denvergirlie

BS#6
kanga1622
rebeccalynn
Sarah8Jane

[tricia80]

Yeah we have a june thread.... i love coming here... its good to not be alone in this journey

[Softmama]

still plugging away at step 3. We are getting there! DH will come home for a visit in mid June and we will have a better idea of when we can move on. He gets his yearly bonus on his next check and I have no idea what that will be. The entire thing will go to our EF though! I think in Sept we get to move on to the next step. So we are keeping our heads down and plugging away til then.
I just went to the bank today and got my cash to put in my envelopes. I LOVE that part
Someone asked on the May thread: My dh gets paid once a month at the END of the month. So the money he got paid at the end of May is my "June" money. The money he will get at the end of June will be my "July" money.

[LilyGrace]

Plodding along at step 2......we've paid off 25% of the credit card since January. : I can't wait for it to be done with.

And now here's my guilty confession. Dh is probably going back to Italy this month and we're going to try to go with him. It'll be relatively low cost, and all cash, but it means dipping into the EF since the vacation fund is just being built up again after his last trip.
BUT, how can I pass up the chance? I don't know if we'll be able to do it again - it depends on where we're stationed next - and it'll be really cheap. I mean, we're talking $50 plane tickets (at the most), free rooms for part of it and cheap rooms for the last two nights. Food and train tickets will cost the bulk of our spending.

It'll tack on another month of being in debt with the cc but I think I'm okay with that.

[twin_mama]

Originally Posted by LilyGrace

Plodding along at step 2......we've paid off 25% of the credit card since January. : I can't wait for it to be done with.

And now here's my guilty confession. Dh is probably going back to Italy this month and we're going to try to go with him. It'll be relatively low cost, and all cash, but it means dipping into the EF since the vacation fund is just being built up again after his last trip.
BUT, how can I pass up the chance? I don't know if we'll be able to do it again - it depends on where we're stationed next - and it'll be really cheap. I mean, we're talking $50 plane tickets (at the most), free rooms for part of it and cheap rooms for the last two nights. Food and train tickets will cost the bulk of our spending.

It'll tack on another month of being in debt with the cc but I think I'm okay with that.

Well....while it's not really an emergency I'll admit that there's NO WAY I could say no to that offer! $50 dollar plane tickets?!?! Excuse me while I go wallow in my jealousy....... ;-)

[twin_mama]

We are still working on BS2. I have one more CC left and am finding it so hard to pay it down. This is completely my fault though. I can't seem to go one month without going over budget so then need to use this last CC to buy groceries for the last week of the month.

My goal in June is to STAY IN BUDGET. If I can stay within our budget I should be able to pay off this card in July which would be great. Then I can tackle our car loan!

[thenaturefreak]

We are working on BS2, but putting more of our snowball into saving ATM. We just found out about some federal relief money that has come into town. We have the potential of getting $50,000 towards a house down payment, closing costs, repairs and energy efficient remodeling. It requires us to have more than just the 1k emergency fund so we are bulking up our EF to qualify.

[akichan]

Please add me to BS3 until divorce causes me to go back to BS2. Thanks!

[major_mama11]

I'm in, still working on Baby Step 2 until we pay off our car loan, and won't be able to put any extra on car loan until August when I get my first paycheck after coming off maternity leave. Until then I will just be pinching pennies to try to avoid dipping into our savings fund while off work.

My goal this month is to minimize my daily spending on groceries and such, so that we will be able to jump back into paying more than the minimums this fall.

[MCsMom]

I'm still here. Irritated at how we can not seem to find renters that will not trash our house and pay their rent. I didn't realize just how many people seem to not consider it important to send in rent till they are harassed about it.

We have our 6 month FFEF done, paid for our R&R vacation with cash, paid cash for a 1500 home repair, and have started saving for our post deployment vacation fund.

I am comming to terms with the reality that we are going to be in our place in Tacoma for quite a while as we will be unable to sell it (owe more then it is worth) and are now no where close to even being able to drop the PMI that I had hoped to be able to do.

[tricia80]

ok so i bought daves software on ebay for cheap...and it has the debt snowball feature which i love... anyways i figured i could be out of $64,000 of debt in 50months... wow is all i can say... it keeps me motivated... i love this little tool and thats not even putting extras like bonuses and tax returns on my debt...

wow is all i can say...

[annethcz]

I'm stuck this month, still at 33% of FFEF. We've had several large expenses in the last month, which means that we probably won't be able to add to the EF at all this month. My goal for June is to stick within my tight budget. There is the very real temptation to pull money out of the EF to make the month more comfortable.

Instead of pulling money out of the EF, I think I'm going to transfer $100 out of my grocery budget and add it to the household/misc. category. I have a full pantry, so as long as I plan ahead and stick to the menu, it shouldn't be a problem to get by on less grocery $ this month. I know myself well enough to know that I'll feel deprived if I don't get to spend a little bit of money on something fun this month.

Originally Posted by akichan

Please add me to BS3 until divorce causes me to go back to BS2. Thanks!

[LilyGrace]

Originally Posted by twin_mama

Well....while it's not really an emergency I'll admit that there's NO WAY I could say no to that offer! $50 dollar plane tickets?!?! Excuse me while I go wallow in my jealousy....... ;-)

LOL..I feel horrible about taking the money out of the emergency fund, but argghhh!
We get two 'free' trips off the island to each of the continents (US/EUR) while we're here. Our plan was to go in Nov, but with the Navy stopping most PCSs this ended up being the best time to get a flight out..PLUS the offer of free rooms? It was just too tempting to pass up.

So, our budgeted 'vacation' money over the next few months will go toward building up the emergency fund again. Not the way DR would do it and I'm sure Suze Orman would rant and rave, but oh well.



On another note, has anyone seen the show Unbroke? I loved it! Most of it is the common sense stuff that DR talks about, but it had skits and examples and the little Etrade Babies and Jonas Brothers all explaining stuff. We made it a point to watch it the other night when it came on here and it started some great discussions with the 10yo Kid. I think it made the topic just *that* much more approachable for him.

[mama2ashlynn]

wow. i am so happy to see this thread. i have not been on mdc in awhile now, but remembered there was a finance section in the forums and whamo...the first thing I see is a dave ramsey thread. I just started the Fin Peace University in a small group with my new church. We just finished lesson 3. I am proud to say my husband and I are debt free already! ANd have $1000 in a EF. We used money I had saved for a tummy tuck after having kids to pay off our debt. I learned to GET REAL and it was more important to be debt free than have the surgery. It was hard to give up but it now feels so good. But....now....we finished our first months budget and allocated spending plan and MAN...we are broke! We now are cutting back on everything. No nada. Just the bare essentials. We are only day 1 in our budget but it feels good and scary at the same time. We are now couponing, increasing insurance deductibles to 1000 and grouping them together w/1 co for a better rate, canceled hm phone and just have cell phones, stopped getting my nails done, cut back eating out to almost nothing-just 1 time a week. I would love for any other ideas, suggestions?!
Look forward to being part of the group! Thanks!!!
Laura
__________________

[Maluhia]

We are plugging away at another month

I'm looking into teaching FPU later in the year at a friend's church that I'm considering joining which would be really fun.

We are still working on BS3 (we are at 2.2 months of savings right now - we put .2 months of LE away each paycheck so .4 per month ) but I'm super excited because after 3.1/.2/.3 we are already DONE with BS4/5 and get to jump right into BS6 with whatever the first house is we buy when we get there and I'm super excited that if we don't buy right away I can split my savings after the 20% DP and allocate a bunch to "share"/charity and that makes my heart sing.

I feel great that we were always doing the ROTH IRAs/MFs/529/UGMA/Insurance stuff and DR has helped me immensely with getting the cash flow in line and borrowing out of our life/vocabulary.

Anyway this week my project is to go over our insurance again and up the deductibles as well as figure out and buy that ID Theft Protection while helping my parents (who are motivated) to choose LTC Insurance.

[Softmama]

Originally Posted by MCsMom

I'm still here. Irritated at how we can not seem to find renters that will not trash our house and pay their rent. I didn't realize just how many people seem to not consider it important to send in rent till they are harassed about it.
.

That's terrible. I am always concerned that we are going to end up with renters like those. Makes me really really really want to sell that house. But right now it won't sell. So renters it is. Sorry you are dealing with that. We've been renting to a company who brings employees over from Japan for 2 year stints. Renting to a large company makes me feel better about things. And they do send in the rent on time. Do you have any major companies around you? Check into whether or not they have any expats. I guess the realtors would be the ones to know that.

[mommy2xander]

Hi,
I am new to this thread. I was just reading through it. With the BS1 and insurance. I do not have health insurance for myself. It is so costly, we literally do no have that kind of money an then still pay our mortgage. This is also the case with life insurance for DH. He is a 42 year old type 1 diabetic. The premium cost is outrageous. Now, I am no making light of life insurance. If somethinghappened to him, the kids and I would loose everything. What do some of you do to afford these when you are just scraping by as is?
Thanks!

[cymbeline]

I guess I am at pre-step 1!!!

Just reconciled the accounts, organized the bills and started wrking on a budget last night.

O M G

I can do this, right? This is terrifying.

[kay4]

: 2 b-days and an anniversary all in one payday and bye bye EF! Looks like I am back to square one.

ETA I am at BS1. I've done all of the prestep things, except dh does NOT want to stop his retirement contributions. So I am not arguing on that one.