Getting out of debt in AUGUST!! - Page 3

[Ruthiegirl]

Still holding tight here.  We spent our $10/week fun budget yesterday and went to the outdoor pool.  It was fantastic.  Long, happy day of swimming and playing and the kids dropped into bed last night, tired and happy.  And today?  Not sure what we have planned.  School starts tomorrow.  We are commuting by bike these days and we need to have a trial run and practice our route and using the bike locks, etc.  I have stuff to make cookies, so we might do that so the kids have a treat in their lunch boxes tomorrow.  

Must keep these kiddos busy.  I hear of families that can frolic and play and entertain themselves.  My kids have yet to catch on to this concept.  It just breaks down into arguing and fighting.  I know it is a phase that we are in right now and it will pass, but for the time being, I am running hard to keep my middle child busy before he can tweak his sister into a brawl.  

What do you guys do to keep your kids busy without spending any money?  Especially an 8 year old boy with a LOT of energy.  

[Deir]

Pay off car or build EF?

To keep it brief: We have a car loan of about 9500. I feel like I we need to have a small EF of at least 5000 even though DR says 1000. I know according to him I should pay off the car before adding to savings above 1000 but it just makes me sick to not have more. We have 0 CC debt and only other debt is the (huge) mortgage.

I should add that I recently became ill (7 mos ago) with a chronic illness and I am seeing an alternative practitioner so my insurance doesn't cover her treatment and I have lost some work because of it. I am primarily a SAHM but I also work in Theatre and usually do about 2-3 shows a year which adds about 7000 to our income.

[Ruthiegirl]

I have a larger emergency fund and like it that way.  We are a family of 5, soon to be 6, and while my dh has very steady income, we deal with my mom's declining health and all of the expenses related to that.  The emergency fund has saved us many times when she has needed expensive meds that her limited insurance would not cover.  

So, my feeling is that a larger cushion is invaluable when healthcare is at stake.  I think Ramsey agrees and refers to things like this as 'storm clouds'.  If you know there is the possibility of needing to pay for care out of pocket, it might be a good time to beef up the EF and be ready.  

[honeybunmom]

How could my husband not know his classes start TODAY?  Because he has ADHD, that's why and only takes his meds when he's in class (per his dr's instruction he doesn't have to take them all the time, they irritate his stomach, but, I still wish he would).  Why does that matter for this forum?  Because, in addition to the funds he needed to register for classes, he's now going to need funds for books, which I wrongly though wouldn't be needed until next pay period.

Small victory is that we had to rent a car last week to make a 2 day trip and won't have to pay for it.  The total was even less than the $154 Priceline said I was going to be charged.  It was only $87 . . . and my mom offered to pay for it (since it was to pick up my daughter from her week with my mom and I always have to buy a round trip ticket for the destination from which my mom takes my daughter home and daughter doesn't use return portion of her ticket to our home). 

I hear you Deir, I prefer to have a larger cushion as well and haven't in oh, 7 years!  Looking forward to turning that around.

[Wolfcat]

Well, good news now...

One of our neighbors let us borrow their lawnmower so we could get the grass cut. It looks jacked up cuz we were hurrying, but at least we won't get hit by a fine.

The mechanic (who just put new brakes on the cars) came over and looked at the tire that had locked up. He said it was his own fault cuz he hadn't tightened something up properly, so it got fixed without charge.

The money's still waaaaay too tight for happiness right now, but I think we'll be ok. Bug got his notice of school pics and I'm going to hit up my parents for it, since gramma is the one who WANTS the pics anyways.

[Ruthiegirl]

Hey Wolfcat.  That is good news.  And where do you live that you would be fined for having a long lawn!?!  Is that part of being in a home owners association?  

I would rack up a fine every month.  We have had a lot of rain and heat here lately and the grass grows so fast.  My neighbor is crazy about keeping up with his lawn and cuts his every 4 days when we get a lot rain.  I simply do not have the time to keep up with it.  

[trekkingirl]

One of my credit cards exists because a rental I had moved into was through a management co and they were going to fine me for my lawn. Since it cost me an absorbent amount of money to move in, I didn't have the cash to buy a lawnmower. Five years later I am still paying off that credit card. Obviously I charged other purchases than a lawnmower. I wouldn't have even had the card if it weren't for that.

[Wolfcat]

Originally Posted by Ruthiegirl 

Hey Wolfcat.  That is good news.  And where do you live that you would be fined for having a long lawn!?!  Is that part of being in a home owners association?  

I would rack up a fine every month.  We have had a lot of rain and heat here lately and the grass grows so fast.  My neighbor is crazy about keeping up with his lawn and cuts his every 4 days when we get a lot rain.  I simply do not have the time to keep up with it.  

Homeowner's association? No. Try City Ordinance...

[Ruthiegirl]

Originally Posted by Wolfcat 

Homeowner's association? No. Try City Ordinance...

Oh, that is ridiculous.  Oi!  They would be at my door every week.  

[Ruthiegirl]

And to check in.  We were able to scrape up a bit more cash -- dh got a small bonus, we were extremely tight with our budget, and this is the month that we have no medical deducted from our paycheck.  

And good news, we survived the hurricane with no damage.  We still do not have power at the house, but all is well.  Dh was able to borrow a generator from work, so we were able to keep our freezer of food cold which will be nice to have in the coming months.  I was worried about losing all of our frozen fruit and veggies.

The garden took a beating, so I'll see what I can make of that.  The lettuce and spinach is crushed, might pick up some seeds and see if I can quickly get the beds reseeded.  Kale and chard are super hardy and most seem to have survived.  The rest of it looks okay, just wind battered.  A couple of days of sunshine and everything should perk back up.  

Our frugal choices are paying off.  We had bought a trail-a-bike for my son and have been commuting around town by bike the past few weeks.  Good exercise and I did not need this past week's gas allowance since we have been driving so much less.  I rolled it into an additional credit card payment and hope to skip this week's fill-up as well.  That covers the cost of the bike purchase, so it paid for itself pretty fast.  

So, holding steady.  No big purchases looming.  We do have a birthday coming up, but should get through it with minimal spending -- dd is turning 10 and wants a slumber party, pizza, cake, etc. She likes homemade pizza best and we are making cupcakes.  I am brainstorming ideas for a present though.  Not sure what to do there.  

So credit cards are getting paid down.  Our new baby is due late December and my goal is to have them both paid off by then.  Earlier if possible.  

CC #1 -- 478.46

CC #2 -- 3250.87

[mom2dea]

Can I join you ladies ? i know August is over but I need some motivation . My husbands job switched insurence and the cost went up by almost 400.00 a paycheck so we had to drop to a lower plan . Within 18 monthes of being on the lower plan we have about 15thousand dollars in medical bills . All of them call all of the time and i can not pay on them all at once . Its so fustrating :(

Then as soon as I feel like I am in controll  Hubby takes a new job , more time at home and more money but then we lost insurence for the month and of course our daughter breaks yet another bone ! And we had no income for 4 weeks either we did get it paid back to us well 3 weeks of it  but  still we had no income when regular bills were due so lots of them started charging late fees on top of our regular fees .

Then I called SSI to inform them of Hubbys new job and get told we will prob lose our SSI and medicaid we have for one og our childern cause of his knew found income . So his more money won't even cover the diffrence of losing SSI.  So we will still be back to square one and no extra money to pay off these bills .

We did Dave Ramsey 4 yrs ago and sold a timeshare , paid off two cars , 5 CC, school loan, misc bills  but Joe was in School full time getting the GI bill so we had about 800 extra  a month to put towards debt . Now there is nothing of the sort .

We have no Emergency fund but I am confussed cause the steps say get Current and then  get a ER fund  sooooo if its medical debt what do you do ?

[mylilmonkeys]

Can you look into Medicaid to cover what happened when you were not covered by insurance?  When we were on it, it covered several months previous.  Might be worth checking in to.  I'm sorry your in such a tight spot!

[honeybunmom]

Welcoming September with a whopping $1100 car repair bill.  Just when I thought I'd be paying off that 401(k) loan.  On the upside, the total is actually $1775, but we paid for (most) of the required parts last month in advance of getting it actually repaired.  Another good thing is that we have the money in take home pay since SS is no longer being deducted and I reduced my 401(k) contribution to the match amount in an effort to pay off the bills.

[mom2dea]

Noppers cause he made to much for Medicaid . We are right on the boarder of  we make jsut enough for no help but we aren't making it . Thanks for the suggestions :)  I did babysit for 4 hours today for some gas money for my hubby .