Getting Out of Debt, Jan Edition - Page 4

[applecider]

Originally Posted by lalaland42

I just logged into one of my student loan holder's website and I got a 1% principal rebate for paying on time last year. That is another $200 I don't have to come up with sometime between now and 2018 when my loans are supposed to be paid off (if I pay the minimum).

Woohoo!!

[ALittleBitCrunchy]

Where I'm at:

BS1 $1,000 to start an Emergency Fund - We should have our EF funded in 2 weeks.

BS2 Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball - We have this planned out. The car will be paid off in May, then we attack the credit cards. The plan is to be debt-free (minus the house) by the end of the year. We'll start the FFEF in 2011.

BS4 Invest 15 percent of household income for retirement - We are at 4% and plan to stay there for the year. In 2011, we'll bump back up to 8% and stay there for awhile.

[MyTwoAs]

Originally Posted by cody'smomma

Oops! I posted this in the Gazelle thread. I meant to post it here! Maybe I should stick to one thread, simplify a bit


I dropped $400 to savings today. That is my goal each payday. We'll see if I can squeeze some more out though. I started going back over my expenses for the last few months and just gave up. I was trying to do cash only, but failed sometimes so I really have no idea how much I actually spent on groceries or each category. I think I may just do the debit card again, because it is so much easier to track where the money goes. Maybe we'll just do cash for our fun money.

Oh, I've also been doing the homecooking challenge and so far, it has been awesome! I'm really liking it and have not gone out to eat, or been tempted yet. Usually the only time I want to go out to eat is when I can't think of anything for dinner.

Congrats on the $400 to savings! I was lurking on the homecooking challenge thread but didn't jump in. I should have because my semester starts on 1/19 and then I get *really* busy. I'll probably join you in February when I'm going to be even more tempted to eat out because of time constraints.

Originally Posted by lalaland42

I just logged into one of my student loan holder's website and I got a 1% principal rebate for paying on time last year. That is another $200 I don't have to come up with sometime between now and 2018 when my loans are supposed to be paid off (if I pay the minimum).

Yay - that is great!

[pranamama]

I am in at BS1

interest rates are crazy right now......

[applecider]

Originally Posted by MyTwoAs

I should have because my semester starts on 1/19 and then I get *really* busy. I'll probably join you in February when I'm going to be even more tempted to eat out because of time constraints.

Ooh, I don't think I could've done it while I was in school. I think I was just trying to survive then!

[eirual]

Back to BS 1 for us!!

I transfered all but $100 out of our EF to put towards our kitchen reno (tisk, tisk on me, I know, I know!!). We still have $300 left from it in DH's acct, but we still need to get a few more things (mainly flooring material) so won't drain it, but still, we're missing a big BIG chunk, so there we go back to replenish the EF Anywhoo, we hope to be back to BS2 in a couple of months, then onto BS 3 a few months later.

This is the first and last non-emergency that will depleat the EF, promise!!

[witch's mom]

Joining late. I'm not altogether sure about the Dave Ramsey lexicon, not having read his stuff, but I definitely have goals for debt reduction for the next few months. We already have a rainy day fund that we refuse to touch, although it is reachable if we need it. And we're laying a fair bit away for retirement--10 percent to 401K, plus $576 each month to the IRAs. I think DR says to stop the investments, but I can't bring myself to do that. So our problem involves credit card debt incurred in the last couple months when we used cards instead of the rainy day fund for tires for two cars, DH's college tuition, my new Mac computer, Christmas, vet bills--things that we weren't able to just pay for outright without delving into the emergency fund because we'd just paid a load of medical bills for DD, who had a freak accident at the end of the summer and needed repair surgery and spent a night in the hospital and it all had to come out of our deductible. In retrospect, we should have probably used the emergency fund, but then I'm not sure I'd have been so motivated to pay it back.

At the beginning of January, the CC debt totaled $6,300 on three cards. With Gazelle Intensity, it's now down to $4,255 on three cards, and the first card has $603 left for us to pay off, which will happen by the end of this month.

As of today:

January Goal No. 1: Pay off CC: $603
January Goal No. 2: Pay toward next CC: $150
January Goal No. 3: Squeeze out a few more bucks and make bigger dent in that second card.
January Goal No. 4: Take extra change and one-dollar bills and shove them in the 2010 Christmas cash jar. If I get this stuff out of my wallet, I don't even miss it and it doesn't tempt me to stop at Starbucks.

[MyTwoAs]

Witch's Mom - Welcome and good job with the January progress. I love your 4th goal, great way to cash flow Christmas.

So I realized that I need to temporarily halt my snowball; not BS2 - just the extra money on consumer debt part. Our a/c unit wasn't expected to last through 2009 but did - I want to have cash on hand to replace it this year if it breaks. I need to get estimates but I'm estimating $6k - $8k, which I'm hoping we'll have saved up by May.

I do have some good news to share, though. I picked up a new blogging gig. It will only bring in about $100/mo but it will only be about 1 hr/wk so not a big time investment. Once I graduate in May, I'm planning on pursuing more opportunities to get closer to 30-40 hours/wk of work and then really get focused on paying off debt.

[_ktg_]

Hello Witch'sMom - great idea for cash flow for christmas. We're doing a similar thing for all our holidays/birthdays with a "holiday" savings account and plunk away so much each month, to survive the holidays without dipping into various funds.

Congrats MyTwoA's on the blogging spot!!

eirual - post pictures once you're done!!!

Just popping in as DH pointed out to me today we have a $68 surplus in our budget this month and if I was curious to have more spending/fun $$. I said NO!! That's going to your SL immediately!

Poor Dh looked a bit terrified as I was little overzealous in my actions to smash this SL once & for all. It will be nice to close that chapter of our lives as it just hangs around DH like dead weight.

[MyTwoAs]

Way to stay focused and put that extra $ on the student loan ktg!

[major_mama11]

Witch's mom- that's a great idea for saving for christmas! I never plan ahead for things like that. I think I'll set aside a gift money jar this year, and try doing the same thing with those odd bits of cash here and there!

About using cash for groceries and daily stuff-- I have gotten away from it the past few months, but this month I started using cash again, and it's much easier to stay within my budget for the trip. The last grocery trip was only $4 more than I estimated it would be, and the one this morning was $6 over my pre-shopping estimate (I always carry $20 more cash than I expect to need, since I always slightly underestimate the final tally). When I use debit, I don't even bother estimating what things will add up to ahead of time, and then I somehow spend $50+ more than I had intended to! Plastic just makes it way too easy for me to overspend!

Aaaand now I'm going to whine a bit...

Received an unexpected bill for $537 for DS's birth, never mind the thousands we have already paid for it out of pocket (bill calls it an "insurance adjustment" whatever that means).

I work PRN (one shift a week usually, but often get cancelled), and up till now I've made just enough to cover my part of the bills (mortgage and everything else takes up all of DH's paycheck before we even think about necessities like groceries).

I love being a mostly SAHM, but I just don't know if it's possible to continue this way, not until we sell our first house. As little as I'm working now, we easily qualify for WIC, but I'm not sure if I'll apply, since it still wouldn't make much of a dent in the amount DH keeps slowly adding back onto his cc each month. If I went back to work PT, we would actually be able to pay off our debts, rather than just barely breaking even. If we paid off our car loan and our first house (still owe about 30K, and haven't been able to sell it), our expenses would drop by ~$600 a month--- THEN me being a SAHM would be much more feasible. I want to have more kids, and I want to homeschool DD, but before either of those things get underway, I think another serious butt-kicking of debt is in order, like the one we did in 2008 when I was first out of school and working FT.

I think I'll give it a few more months trying to make ends meet with my current job (don't want to be gone for long stretches while DS is still so little), but if we're continuing to have to eat into our savings after DS's first b-day, I'll start seriously looking for a different position with guaranteed hours.

[sweetjasmine]

Paid off the last $884 of medical bills from dh's foot surgery last year. At least I think it's the last of it. I hope. We get paid every two weeks and this last payday was an extra check for us so I put it to good use and paid off that bill instead of spending it like I have in the past and not having anything to show for it. Dh had wanted me to pay as little as possible a month on it but I'm like, no way, I don't want that hanging over our heads if we can easily get rid of it now. It's such a relief to have it gone!

$700 left on my cc and about $6k on the car. That won't get paid off. We are going to trade it in for a new car because we are starting to have problems with our current one and dh insists. Sigh. I'll just have to get the new one paid off as quick as I can.

[MyTwoAs]

Sweetjasmine - Congrats on paying off the medical bill! It sounds like you put that extra check to good use.

Major_mama - Good luck to you with your decision and may you find a way to easily make ends meet without changing your work schedule.

I had some unexpected money coming in today and although I'm saving up any extra money I get to cash flow a new a/c unit for our house, I did put about $500 on a credit card because that was the balance. I wanted to get that paid off so that I can transfer that monthly payment to another credit card.

[major_mama11]

Sweetjasmine and MyTwoAs- yay for paying off the last of medical and cc bills! Such a good feeling to cross more debt off the list.

Originally Posted by MyTwoAs

Major_mama - Good luck to you with your decision and may you find a way to easily make ends meet without changing your work schedule.

Thanks for the good wishes- I talked to DH about it last night and he still thinks everything is a-ok, which it is, really. I just get so frustrated when we hit a standstill like this financially. He pointed out that the only reason this month has been so tough is due to my being called off work so much- if I had worked all my scheduled hours we would be fine.

I signed up for a few extra shifts at work the other night. I know that in the next few months some of my coworkers will need their vacations covered, and I'll probably have more than enough hours at work to make some progress again. I really enjoy the freedom of working PRN, and I need to stop complaining when I don't get my hours in, because most of the time, it's an awesome gig. There are a few part-time prospects on the horizon (such as a possible every-other-weekend position, which would be so perfect for our family), so I think my strategy for the time being is just to be patient, and enjoy all the extra time I'm getting at home with my kids right now!

In the meantime, I've got a few "gazelle-intense" things in mind that I need to sell (my wedding dress, a business suit that I interviewed in, a camera), which would help a bit in easing that "crunched" feeling.

[MyTwoAs]

Major_mama11 - Good luck selling those items. I'm glad that your husband was able to shed a little light on the situation but I understand what you mean - standstill isn't a bad thing but it can be unnerving.

So I've spent some time this past week browsing through the MyTMMO forums and relistening to Dave's shows and realizing that even though selling my car would be a wise thing to do, I just don't want to sell it. I know that we'd get out of debt more quickly without the car payment but I like the car and don't particularly want to sell it. The car payment represents about 4% of our monthly income so its not like it is a huge chunk of our income. Any thoughts on this?

[sweetjasmine]

Mytwoas, IMO if you aren't hurting by having this car, I don't see why you couldn't keep it. We all have to do what's best in our own lives and not necessarily follow verbatim a one-size-fits-all program, you know?

[Sarah8Jane]

Originally Posted by MyTwoAs

So I've spent some time this past week browsing through the MyTMMO forums and relistening to Dave's shows and realizing that even though selling my car would be a wise thing to do, I just don't want to sell it. I know that we'd get out of debt more quickly without the car payment but I like the car and don't particularly want to sell it. The car payment represents about 4% of our monthly income so its not like it is a huge chunk of our income. Any thoughts on this?

How long will you be in step 2?

[MyTwoAs]

Right at two years based solely on my husband's base pay. I am a freelance writer and so I don't like to count on my income for anything. My husband has the opportunity to earn a chunk of commission pay this year (his first quarter they already met their goal, his industry isn't really affected by the recession).

If I factor in what I make and his possible commission, it would probably be 12-15 months.

[chaoticzenmom]

Originally Posted by lalaland42

Sadly the plug and voltage are different here. I have a nice crockpot in storage in the states just waiting for me to come back to it. I think I'll send DH to see if he can get the store to order more. If not, I will go shopping in Germany after the baby is born. Things are cheaper in Germany.

You could get a cocotte minute instead. I love mine from Zeb, old fashioned with the huge screw-like thing on the top. I think they're under 100Euros.

[Sarah8Jane]

Originally Posted by MyTwoAs

Right at two years based solely on my husband's base pay.

If I factor in what I make and his possible commission, it would probably be 12-15 months.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think DR says you "can" keep the car if 1) you like the car and 2) you'll be debt free in two years or less.