It's July and we're getting out of debt with DR - Page 5

[organicmidwestmama]

Originally Posted by akichan

What do you do about car insurance? Pay a little more overall and pay monthly, or suck it up and pay all in one month so the overall bill is less? Car and motorcycle insurance are due this month, paid car in full, wondering what to do about motorcycle.

Other big things this month that will probably keep me from putting anything into savings this month too, are:

car maintenance estimated to be around $400
car seat purchase $200? depends which one I buy?
preschool tuition deposit $205

Off to make my budget now . . .

check online for sales on good carseats. obviously i know car seats are crucial and quality counts, but 200$ is a lot for a car seat. i know the britax and true fit are good carseats, but check consumer reports, there are other good, safe carseats for less then even 100$. just my 2 cents.

[Nickarolaberry]

We have some successes!

We have a $1000 emergency fund and have completely repaid our tax debt and one of our cc's. We have one more cc to go (accrued when there was almost no income due to job loss). And we still have some smaller student loans. But we are more than 2/3 there and dh will be starting a new job : next month.

(We will be a little stalled on the debt snowball as we use only cash to move, etc. but we will get back to it! )

[stellarae]

hi ladies. im a bit late to the game this month, but ****please move me to baby step 2***** yay!!!
so we start baby step 2 with:
medical 1 - $24.66 pd
medical 2 - $96.53 pd
medical 3 - $53.47/169.62
medical 4 - $25/341.61 (min. payment)
medical 5 - $25/395.45 (min. payment)
medical 6 - $50/630.03 (min. payment)
truck (personal) loan - $137/1813.80 (min. payment)
student loan - $174/11,339.53 (min. payment)
car loan - $397/18,201.87 (min. payment)

total debt pd since debt snowball (july09): $982.66

im back to wanting to get a different car. i have been advised to keep the car, trade it in for a used car, and just about everything else under the sun, but i havent made up my mind yet. there is a certified prius that is listed at how much my car is worth, and another that is listed at $5000 less than what mine is worth. so i might go drive those and see if they are what im looking for. it really is the car i wanted from the beginning, anyway.
my husbands truck is giving us heck right now and needs to be fixed, needs new tires, etc. we just put almost $900 into it and it still needs back brakes, e-brake fixed, and the new tires are over $500. dh is working overtime, but when i think about the potential $2000 we will be sinking into the car, it discourages me and makes me want to get him something more reliable.

i have found a place that is about a 45-60 minute commute (each way) from dh's work that is $300 less per month to rent, on top of that it includes heat and water which would save us approx. $162/mo. if we spread out the heating costs throughout the year (so instead of saying its a $200-300 bill 6-7 months a year, we say its $150 every month of the year, and thats if gas prices stay where they are right now) so it is a good deal if we can get in there and dh's vehicle can be reliable. especially during the winter. im going to set up an appointment to check it out this weekend.

budget is kind of getting hammered. dh was out of town the first two weeks of july, so that means he ate out every day. he has a per diem, though, so its covered. i made 3 naughty eating-out trips, as well as us getting sandwiches out 2 times this month. its all covered by the per diem, but it means i have some recalculating to do. same with diaper purchases, a walmart run or two, (budgeted, i just have to see where i stand) and dh has forgotten his lunch a couple times this week which = him eating out. anyhow, with all the extra money we are getting in from mileage, per diem and overtime everything is way more than covered, im just not looking forward to rebalancing the budget.

so... thats me so far this month!

[Maluhia]

Originally Posted by akichan

What do you do about car insurance? Pay a little more overall and pay monthly, or suck it up and pay all in one month so the overall bill is less? Car and motorcycle insurance are due this month, paid car in full, wondering what to do about motorcycle.

Other big things this month that will probably keep me from putting anything into savings this month too, are:

car maintenance estimated to be around $400
car seat purchase $200? depends which one I buy?
preschool tuition deposit $205

Off to make my budget now . . .

Akie - IF you have USAA insurance (which you DO qualify for) there is no difference in price between paying monthly and paying lump sum.

If there is a difference in price, pay it lump sum if you have it in cash, but don't pay cc interest on it that would end up being more than the difference in cost between one time and monthly.

[LilyGrace]

Originally Posted by akichan

What do you do about car insurance? Pay a little more overall and pay monthly, or suck it up and pay all in one month so the overall bill is less? Car and motorcycle insurance are due this month, paid car in full, wondering what to do about motorcycle.

Other big things this month that will probably keep me from putting anything into savings this month too, are:

car maintenance estimated to be around $400
car seat purchase $200? depends which one I buy?
preschool tuition deposit $205

Off to make my budget now . . .

If you've already set aside the money to pay the insurance in a lump sum, I'd do that. We pay monthly for about 4 months right now, dividing the bill into 8 paychecks regardless of what the statement says. Starting next month, though, the budget is reconfigured to cut that back a little bit and put the insurance money into our savings account, so it's sitting there and ready for when it comes due next April.

We also budget in car maintenance/new car purchase as a monthly budget, along with upcoming kid purchases. It helps keep us from having unexpected oopsies down the road.....like this month. Our bondo buggy has a repair bill of $600, leaving dh to worry about where we were going to get that until I showed him the budget book and how much was in there to take care of it all. He had seen the car category in the monthly budget, but with such low amounts going in he didn't count on there being much in the account to take care of it. It was a nice surprise for him - and let him see that budgeting does work!

[beansmama]

Just popping in to say hi! (Did i already do this??)

We're still working on our FFEF...we really haven't done much in the way of our TMMO this month or last. I added $103 to our savings this month. That's it. But...I'm due on Tuesday, and so we've been buying everything we need for the baby, etc...having money to do that is great - and it wouldn't be possible without our TMMO!

Sooooo...I had to re-apply for food stamps last week. I got my letter from them yesterday saying we'll no longer be receiving food stamps. That's $355/mo for food that we are losing. My new grocery budget is $260/mo (well, $130 every two weeks) so I'm going to have to really buckle down! No more splurging on junk or $25.99/lb cheeses!! (I'm lactose intolerant - but DH has a cheese tooth, lol).

Anyway, so yeah. Just have to tighten up the budget a bit. We can do it - I have no doubt, it'll just take us longer now! That's $260/mo LESS for our FFEF...poo!

[MamaPam]

I can be moved to Baby Step 1 now.

BS1 $1,000 to start an Emergency Fund$200/$1,000
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)-Done
1.3 Get Life insurance NOW if you have considerable debt/your family couldn't make it financially if you died. Done
1.4 Amputate cars that you can't pay off within 24 monthsNot applicable. We have one car that is paid for fully
1.5 Consider raising insurance deductables to $500 or $1000 Done

I think building our emergency fund is going to be slow. DH is a full time student and works full time as it is. He is trying to pick up some extra side work though. We have someone that owes us $300 for a website, but he just lost his main job and now doesn't know when he'll be able to pay us. But that money is for the EF whenever we do get it.

[laohaire]

Since I've joined, here I am for the record:

Pre-Step 1: Get current on your debts and do a budget Already done
0.1 Commit to NEVER borrow $$$ again Done
0.2 Talk with spouse and get him/her on the same page as you concerning finances. Already done
0.3 Do a written budget Already done
0.4 Temporarily stop all retirement contributions Already done (sigh)
0.5 Get current on all the basics (Shelter, Food, Utilities, Basic clothing) Already done
0.6 Amputate "toys" (bikes, boats, ATV's etc) if they will keep you from completing the snowball within 12 months Already done (no toys to amputate)
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. Done, eating out is now officially eschewed and the rest of the lifestyle is already minimal
0.8 Get current on ALL bills Already done

BS1 $1,000 to start an Emergency Fund $970/$1000 - yes we are still scraping up the last $30!!!
1.1 Chop up/freeze CC's (You have an EF now) Don't care what DR says, we don't have a cc problem but using our debit card has cost us $300+ - so our cc stays, for travel purposes
1.2 Get Health insurance NOW if in the US (chances of getting sick w/ major medical bills are larger than that of death) Already done
1.3 Get Life insurance NOW if you have considerable debt/your family couldn't make it financially if you died. Already done
1.4 Amputate cars that you can't pay off within 24 months Not needed (can pay in 12 months now)
1.5 Consider raising insurance deductables to $500 or $1000 Already done, homeowners and health

So we're $30 shy of moving to step 2

[Contrariety]

Finally able to move some money over to my midwife fund!

BS 1.2: Midwife fund - $1075/1800 Woot! I'm more than halfway by now! :

...though I haven't repaid the $100 I had to take of out my EF yet... but really it's all the same if it's all going toward savings and right now saving to pay the midwife off is stressing me out way more than getting that extra $100 back into my EF.

[annethcz]

Originally Posted by stellarae

i have found a place that is about a 45-60 minute commute (each way) from dh's work that is $300 less per month to rent, on top of that it includes heat and water which would save us approx. $162/mo. if we spread out the heating costs throughout the year (so instead of saying its a $200-300 bill 6-7 months a year, we say its $150 every month of the year, and thats if gas prices stay where they are right now) so it is a good deal if we can get in there and dh's vehicle can be reliable. especially during the winter. im going to set up an appointment to check it out this weekend.

I'd recommend sitting down to crunch the numbers. Although heat/water included might save you money, commuting that far every day might eat up a lot of that $300/month savings. In addition to your DH commuting, will you need to drive 45-60 minutes to go shopping, visit friends, take your kids to classes, etc.? Gas prices are only going up.

[dinahx]

Subbing! <3

[hollytheteacher]

oooh I found it *bump*

Can we sticky it now pretty please

[excitedtobeamom]

bump

[mtm]

bow down before me, i just got back from 2 weeks vacation and stuck to my budget. First time ever and we had a great time! Off to catch up on the thread now.

[Softmama]

way to go MTM !!

I am getting annoyed this month. I really need to sit down and figure out what I have to do to make it til the end of July. whoever said having company was NOT CHEAP was dead on. I had my SIL here for 9 days and now my mom is coming tomorrow. My mom actually said, "THIS time I want to do fun stuff, like go to the zoo and museums". ummm....yeah but she doesn't pay for us and not only that, she expects ME to pay for HER. So I've got fun stuff planned, but it's the pool and such She has never lived on a budget in her life and thinks my husband has me "on too tight a leash" and that I need to break free from the "control freak". Even after I explained that *I* was the one insisting on a budget and *I* was the one who dragged dh to financial freedom class. sorry. rant over.

[excitedtobeamom]

mtm-Awesome job!

[Leav97]

Originally Posted by Leav97

I'm almost done with pre-step 1. Only the garbage bill is behind.

BS #1
87/1000

BS #2
CC 1 - 440
CC 2 - 1400
CC 3 - 3250
Signature loan - 2025
Car Loan - 14950

I'm trying to consolidate the student loans and will move them down and pay them after the mortgage. I've paid off almost 350 this month. 22,060 to go.

BS #1
0/1000

BS #2
CC 1 - 500
CC 2 - 1475
CC 3 - 3275
Signature loan - 1960
Car Loan - 14780

I'm not making much progress right now. I've made about $75 of progress the last 2 weeks. August should be better because I'll have an "extra" pay check.

For the month of July I've paid off $425.

[twin_mama]

I just wanted to share a small victory with you guys.

Some background: this is the FIRST month that dh and I have worked hard TOGETHER on our budget. Since we bought our house one year ago, I have never been able to keep us within our budget each month. We usually go over 100-300 each month and pull from our savings to keep us afloat. *ashamed*

So, seeing as it's the end of the month, we have no $$$ in our accounts. Everything has been pulled or about to be pulled from our checking.

Last night was so unbearably hot in our house and we have no air conditioning. Dh and I loaded up the girls and went to Barnes and Noble and Target for some relief, but before we left, I grapped our piggy bank full of loose and unaccounted for change and was able to find $15 in quarters. We bought a $7 item for dh at Target and used those quarters. Came back home and put the rest of the quarters right back into the piggy bank.

I am just SO happy and proud of ourselves for not using the debit/credit card to buy things that we just can't afford last night. Target is the easiest place to "oh, just buy one or two things" and then walk out $50 poorer. Instead we had a plan before we left the house and stuck to that plan. This will be the FIRST month we've stayed within our budget and I can not express to you the relief I have knowing that.

Yay!!!!!

[hollytheteacher]

mtm and twin mama-- GREAT JOB

I got a little bit of a not so great surprise this month, the escrow statement from my mortgage company states that our new mortgage payment is going up 150 more per month good ol' rising property taxes

HOWEVER, my dh and I had an emergency budget meeting right then and there...literally after I opened the mail and read it. And we re worked our budget and will be just fine We tightened up the belt on the "food" allowance...some months we spent close to 1400 on food (and we are a familiy of three!!) I know it's awful. We pretty much ate out for lunch every day and most nights too. So far this week we only ate out for dinner once and that was after I babysat and made some extra unexpected money, plus we ate at a little stand so it was relatively cheap...not a sit down type meal.

So the long and short of it is...we will be okay :P

[laohaire]

Originally Posted by Leav97

BS #1
0/1000

What happened to the $87 you had in there?