Getting Out of Debt in November - Page 3

[major_mama11]

Originally Posted by root*children

I would totally pay off that loan major mama!! borrower is SLAVE to the lender, and all Plus, you're scheduled to work for 3 more months, so you'll totally have that 3 month emergency fund back in place before you know it!

Originally Posted by 3timesamom

Major mama, I would just go ahead and pay it. Once you are debt free your money is yours We hated the low savings account number BUT it feels good to be debt free Now when we get back taxes this year we owe NO ONE!! Its fabulous!!!

OK, I totally agree with you all... but I just called the car loan bank and found out that we owe $1400 more on the car loan than I had thought. So I can't pay it off all at once like I was hoping to do. Hmmm... maybe I will spread it out over the remaining 3 mos I have of PT work? Draining part of the bank acct scares me, but it will be so nice to just have it paid off!

[MyTwoAs]

Oh new forum and all of my subscriptions are gone.  I like the look and feel though, yay!

majormama - Just keep plugging away at it again - three months payoff is better than the original amount at least.  

So I was finally able to make my November mortgage payment today.  Our mortgage was sold from one company to another (first time in 8 years that this has happened) and the new company said they couldn't accept my payment until 11/11 because that is when they'd have my account number.  They invited me to go ahead and mail in a check with the old mortgage company's loan number on it - no thanks, I don't trust the system on that one hehe.  So I called today and they already have me in the system so I was able to make my November payment over the phone.  I was so freaked that it would be considered late because it is after the 1st but everyone's assured me that it isn't late, there was no late fee, and there are actually laws to protect consumers when a mortgage is sold.  It feels good to get that out of the way before.  Am I slightly neurotic about this?  Yes!  =P

How's everyone else doing?

[eirual]

• Got a lovely letter from the gov't saying they did a tax reassessment that makes NO sense (like that I apparently received a pension and worked with a company in 2009 that I hadn't worked for in years...hello, I'm 28 and you've got the wrong years!).....apparently they'd like $900....hoping they made some mistake....oh, and they took the liberty of going ahead and including interest on that.
•  Kids at school have opened a school canteen/tuck shop/snack bar and kids are borrowing left, right and centre to get treats. It was interesting to see different people's reactions....one boy gave money to pay for his previous 2 days, took something new today and said he'd owe them a quarter tomorrow....I chimed in with some cautions to borrowing and points to ponder....to which the older kids running it replied "don't tell him that, we want him to keep buying stuff" (interesting to see that mentality even on such a small scale).
• there was so a third point I was going to mention, hence the bullets, but it escapes me at the moment....

[3timesamom]

Laurie, it really is amazing! They do want us to charge stuff. Its the way to be sure we spend money even if we don't have it! Its disgusting and I am doing my best to get our family into a place that we don't need credit again. I also want to teach my children how disgusting it is!

AFM, Nothing new really. I will be able to put the rest of the money in savings this week. Sadly though DH is still searching for some gun. UGH. Its a battle thats for sure. He still claims this will not be something that goes on all the time and after this he will back off. We shall see:( We did however get on common ground. We plan to save 10,000 in our FFEF. At that time we will begin slamming the savings on the house. The only breaks we will take from that are to replenish savings for anything we have to pull out of it. IE a car repair, replacement or anything like that:) I am excited that we are in agreement about this. There was a time he thought savings was stupid. He can atleast get on board with the fact that that saved our butts last time!

Well off to fold laundry:) I washed it in our home made laundry soap. Its yummy stuff!

Glad mothering is back.

[montlake]

You can add me. We are getting everything done in Pre-Step 1 this month. Next month I have some expenses I have been saving for (like some work on the car, etc) Then will be starting on BS1 as of January 1. Unless I end up getting a bonus this year, then we will be starting step 1 next month. Though we have already checked off everything there expect the actual $1,000 and looking at raising deductibles. So anxious to get to the snowball!!!!

[sarah1122]

Sent in my big $2700 payoff check for loan #3....waiting for the ol' checking account to drop!  Remembered that DH gets paid today though, so we've got more of a cushion than I thought until the end of the month.

Felt good and scary all rolled in one.

[laohaire]

I've been away from MDC for a little while. And some things have changed. I need to edit my siggie (which says I'm in BS2) because I'm back in BS1. I recently took over the finances again and I've found we in fact don't have $1k emergency savings anymore. I don't know why not, but I'm just focusing on "from now on." Though I'm honestly confused and overwhelmed by a lot of the finances. We paid off our car note earlier in the year, so we should have a minimum of $350 amonth extra each month, no sweat. If we struggled to pay the car loan, I wasn't aware of it. So where did it go? I don't know. And it's not because I'm not tracking the money - I can tell you down to the penny what we spent on anything (groceries, utilities, WHATEVER) in October and in November so far.

What has changed since we paid off the note earlier in the year and now? Well, for one thing we've tightened our belts a lot more. We have not so much as bought a carryout pizza since I started working on the finances October 1. So where is the money?

I do know we have a medical bill, but I negotiated a $150 a month payment (no interest). OK, so that leaves a minimum of $200 a month savings we should have rolling around. Where is it?

I wonder if we've actually been running a deficit all year. It's the only explanation I can think of.

We've had the same income since 2008, no raises but also no losses. Where did the money go? Inflation can only explain a bit of it, right?

Except for that medical bill, I can only think of ways we've been saving. We used to pay $120 a month for electric, but through a combination of things we've gotten it down to $50 (a good chunk of that is my sheer effort - I've stopped using the dryer). So where is that $70 a month? Where is the $50 a month we used to blow on eating out but don't anymore? OK, I just remembered we paid an annual life insurance premium but that was $180, not the end of the world. And we got the car inspected. But come on!

Sorry for the depressing post. I have $450 in my EF and I'm back to BS1, and given that the holidays are coming up I just don't see how this is going to work out anytime soon. Fortunately the extended family agreed to a gift structure that makes it very managable for everyone - probably about $130 for the entire effort. Still that money has to come out of somewhere. Well, will keep plugging away.

[Thandiwe]

Joining up!  Need to read through all the back posts.

[sarah1122]

Hi Laohaire ; what a bummer!  What are you using for keeping track of income and expenses?  I was having a really hard time keeping track of everything and so we have completely given up using cash and use debit purchases for almost everything now.  We use mint.com to keep track...it has helped us SO MUCH and you can really see where every penny goes...just a suggestion.

[laohaire]

Yes, using mint.com, it's great Unfortunately I just signed up a couple of months ago, so it doesn't tell me what the situation was in, say, April. I am just going to wait and see if I can figure it out over time.

[sarah1122]

Isn't it so good?  Loving the new Goals feature....

How frustrating...I guess its just onward and upward.

[chely7425]

Soooo... I paid off my first credit card!!!  Woo hoo!!!  Granted it was the smallest of the 7 (just under 500 dollars) but STILL!!!  It is paid off!!!  I will be even happier when I get my statement (on the 21st) and it says zero balance :D  I should be able to pay off another small one next month (a little under 700) and maybe part of another... but that will depend on holiday stuff.  I don't want to pay off a credit card and then have to use one again!!!  Anyway.. I am super excited about paying things off... everything should be paid off by February when we get our taxes then I have till June to save as much as possible before I move back home!!

[major_mama11]

Yay on loan payoffs sarah1122 and chely7425!

laohaire, good luck gettings things on track... I know that feeling like you're financially treading water no matter how much you tighten your belts.

3timesamom, I sympathize on having a partner with "expensive tastes". My DH spent 2 grand on cameras last winter, and then a month later I ended up having to bail him out bc his employer couldn't afford to pay payroll! Luckily I was able to up my hours at work at that time. I think DH learned his lesson; I have made it clear that there will be no more bailouts brought on by overspending in this house! Keeping that cushion is def a good thing, since we never know what will happen tomorrow.

[corrie43]

we are still working on BS3.. We have 2000 in savings that we hopefully won't need to touch when we go to disney in January. We have flights paid, hotels paid and a weeks worth of disney tickets paid IN CASH... Woo hoo. We just need a rental car for the week and our food down there.

I have taken on a few new part time things, selling for two direct sales companies, scentsy and thirty one gifts, I am cleaning houses and I run a daycare as well. My husband works one extra half day a week as well.

I went CRAZY overboard spending the past few months, and decided to enroll in FPU when he offered free enrollment for veterans on veterans day. I am a disabled vet, so I hopped right on that. It is very motivating and I am loving watching the videos and doing the work. I am back on track now and ready to start SAVING UP those 3-6 months worth of expenses. and building wealth..

[3timesamom]

Corrie, I recognice your name from babycenter. Hello there. That sounds like it will be a lot of fun. I hope you don't need to touch savings as well!

Major mama, Oh its so irritating! I am trying so hard not to control him. After all its his money. It is making me resentful to know though how much sacrafice the rest of us are making so we can buy HIM a gun. Maybe I should make him handle the money. UGH.

Chely, that does feel sooooo good!!! You are doing awesome!

Laohaire, Yeah see thats why I am SOOOO afraid to let go of the reins! I am so tired of constantly sweeping up after DH. However I just know that if he was in control of the finances he would NEVER save. He would spend EVERY dime EVERY month.

AFM, We are amazon Xmas shopping. We are looking at the leapster explorers for our son. We are looking at the DSI for DD and we are just at a loss with our two year old. It is so hard to buy stuff I fear will be forgotten by the end of xmas day. We saved 300$ for xmas. So any babysitting money I get from now till xmas is for groceries, pictures (we get family photos as gifts) and xmas gifts. Both the older kids want kind of expensive things this year. I suspect we will go a little over. Everything looks like it will be cash flowed though. 

So our other issue is for our 2yo his bday is the end of January! He will be 2. Any ideas mommas?? We are looking at the leapfrog leap top but we handed him one in Target today and he was tossing it aside. SOOOOO any ideas???

Well thats all for now:)

[chely7425]

I am doing a lot of my Christmas shopping on Amazon too... last night I did a big order because we got our refund check from housing since we cleared mid month, so I used that to buy a bunch of the stuff on my list.  My kids are done... the older 2 are getting art supplies to go with the easel my parents got them, and a bunch of cars and trucks.  We are trying to get rid of the annoying battery powered crap so I got them things to replace what we are getting rid of since its stuff they play with all the time!  The baby (who will be 2.5 months at Christmas) is getting 2 wooden teether/rattle things.  He has no idea what is going on and we don't need more stuff so... yeah.  I have a few small things left to get.. a drum for one of my best friends nephews, an outfit for my niece (her brothers are getting legos that I ordered already) and a few things for my brother and sister and some small stuff for my friend Leigh's kids.  Probably just some clothes since I think they need those.  At any rate, we still have 2 paychecks before Christmas so we are good to cash flow everything for the first year ever!!!  Very exciting :D  I will do my brother and sister's stuff next paycheck (since Hanukka is way early this year) and then possibly a few of the other things I need then finish up with the paycheck on the 15th!!

[3timesamom]

It is AWESOME to cash flow xmas:) We have done it since our marriage began BUT, we use to do more than we could REALLY afford. This year it seems all will be well:) I am really psyched about it:) I am making my amazon cart and our 2 year old is STILL the only one we struggle with. We already have the cool things from his older brother KWIM?

[chely7425]

I totally know what you mean!!  We aren't getting the baby anything because we have so much from his big brothers...
 

Originally Posted by 3timesamom 

It is AWESOME to cash flow xmas:) We have done it since our marriage began BUT, we use to do more than we could REALLY afford. This year it seems all will be well:) I am really psyched about it:) I am making my amazon cart and our 2 year old is STILL the only one we struggle with. We already have the cool things from his older brother KWIM?

[MCsMom]

So I know I have been gone for a while - but our finances knd of took several big hits all at once, too depressing to post about :-)   But the good news is, that finally we seem to have made it through to the other side - put money back into our savings account, have money to pay all the bills and enough left over to still be able to get food and gas.  It has been really draining emotionally to have to put the food/gas onto the credit card (that was paid in full monthly) knowing that I didn't have the money in my account to pay for it till after payday.  The good news - it really solidifies for me that being in debt - is not worth it.

So I have another question for you all - where does starting a business fall into the baby steps? 

For us, we have a 4-5 month emergency fund, 9% to retirement, some college funding but we are also paying private school tuition so this is not a priority for us.  Do you think Dave would say that the current SAHM could start a business that she would like instead of trying to find a job?

[Pogo0685]

Wow so much has happened here while I was away from here for a few weeks, congrats to everyone on paying stuff off this month! This thread is so inspiring! We just got some of the money from my MIL so we set up our $1000 savings account and now we are on BS2! And we still have a little bit of money left after that so we are going to pay off our highest balance first. Its not what DR says to do but its a compromise DH and I made, he wants to pay off the highest 2 first because we only have 2 that are over $1000, one of them is somewhere around $3,500 and the other one is $1,500 so those will be paid first and then we will work from smallest to largest. I am thinking that with the money his mom is giving us we should be able to pay off those, then once we get tax money back we will use that to pay the rest. And then we will start doing our FFEF, for a 6 month supply of cash I want $18,000 is this a high number? Without the credit cards I think we really only need it to be at $2,000 a month but I feel better having $3,000 a month just in case. 

Christmas: This year we are making everything we give to other people, I am really crafty so I think its awesome that I have no choice but to sit and craft for the next month! My DS is getting very few gifts, he will also be turning 2 very soon after Christmas, so for Christmas he is getting: From DH and I- A guitar, a few books, and maybe another small present. From Santa- he will be getting a art easel and his stocking will have art supplies. For his birthday (On Feb 7th) he will be getting a play kitchen.