Getting out of Debt in October! - Page 4

[lilacvioletiris]

eirual, my DH is still trying to get over the "I am married now and I don't have excess income to just do what I want and not pay attention to my bank account".  We have been married over 2 years.  He isn't much of a spender but he "loves" his model airplane hobby and it is expensive. Basically the money he spends on model airplanes is our blow money.  My hobby of sewing actually makes stuff for us - clothes, home decor, etc - so it is less "blow" and more "budget".  One day at a time.

[eirual]

Orange, we started in 2009 and I STILL suck at budgeting.

Regardless, we make progress and move in the right direction, even though it never plays out perfectly. Doing SOMETHING is way better than doing nothing.

LVI, I think it's important to have those little things, as long as the needs are being taken care of first. You NEED to pay your bills, you NEED to save, and anything left can be "fun". Is he cutting into bills with his hobby? Can you encourage him to cap his spending at a certain point that you're comfortable with? If it's seriously driving you crazy, you could tally up what he spends (and maybe what you spend on sewing too?)  and show him that if we find a mutual hobby for free, we could be out of debt this much sooner. I think both of those sound like healthy hobbies though, so as long as it's not destroying you and you're still on track to meeting your goals, I think I'd let it go. ...I'm not sure men ever grow up and realize they're married. lol "The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys".

[lactatinggirl]

Originally Posted by lilacvioletiris 

eirual, my DH is still trying to get over the "I am married now and I don't have excess income to just do what I want and not pay attention to my bank account".  We have been married over 2 years.  He isn't much of a spender but he "loves" his model airplane hobby and it is expensive. Basically the money he spends on model airplanes is our blow money.  My hobby of sewing actually makes stuff for us - clothes, home decor, etc - so it is less "blow" and more "budget".  One day at a time.

My DH also has a potentially expensive hobby (Magic: The Gathering cards, which can get quite expensive). We handle it by a combination of things. When he goes to pre-releases (tournaments that you have to buy into and get cards from) it's almost always a gift for whatever holiday is coming up. He also uses his hobby to pay for itself sometimes by selling some cards he's not using to buy new ones. Lastly, he uses his blow money. 

As for the blow money category, do you do yours and your DH's separate? I think that's really important to do because it's meant to be something that you can just buy on a whim, which you can't really do if you're consulting with someone else first. Secondly, it's called blow money because you can spend it on whatever you want, not on just your hobbies. My husband has questioned in the past if it's "fair" that I often spend my blow money on our daughters whereas he spends his on himself. I've told him in the past that it's my choice to spend it on the girls and so it is fair. If you don't want to spend your blow money on what you're spending it on, I'd suggest putting it in different categories. Maybe if you're making clothes it shouldn't come out of your blow money, but rather your clothes money. Same goes for home decore coming out of your home category. I knit and when I'm buying yarn to knit a gift for someone, it comes out of the gifts category rather than my blow. So it's still my entertainment, but the purpose is a gift. 

[trekkingirl]

Originally Posted by eirual 

Trekking, what's the catch?!? That's a significant price drop for being seriously only 10 minutes away!

Orange, the key is to "spend" every cent before it actually gets into your hands. We did it by making a modest budget, that number left over after everything's paid would HAVE to go into paying off debt!! If not, it would get spent and just flitter away.

With that being said, if you foresee a storm a-brewin', you could have separate savings for that. For example, if you have $300 left, maybe $75-$100 would go to car repairs/replacement and the rest to debt. If you have a newer car and are pretty safe and secure, you could take your chances on having only your mini EF available. DH needed to drive to work, we had/have an old, paid-off car so we decided car-replacement was a smart fund for us to have and paid off debt while building a car fund (at about a 3:1 ratio savings to car fund).

I don't think I explained myself well. The two areas aren't ten minutes away from each other. More like 45 minutes from each other, maybe an hour? The difference in commute time from DH's work is about 45 min instead of 35 min. I'm not sure what the catch is? At first I thought the price was lower because of an oil refinery but when I looked at the map it seems that the more expensive area is just as exposed to it. Maybe even more exposed because the bay is in between instead of mountains. There seems to be a correlation between closeness to San Francisco and price, as in the farther you are the less you pay? This cheaper area is much hotter and also really windy. Strange combo, I know! It is farther from the coast. I'm not sure how the neighborhoods are because I have never lived there.

[trekkingirl]

Originally Posted by mamayogibear 

Where in the bay area can you get a mortgage for 1k? Richmond?

I find the bay area frighteningly expensive!

We're considering Cordelia, Green Valley, Fairfield, or Suisun. All in Solano County. I would consider Vallejo or Richmond but DH won't do it! The areas that we were trying to buy in but have been outbid were Petaluma, Rohnert Park, and Santa Rosa.

[lilacvioletiris]

eirual, we are able to cover our bills (and extra toward minimum payments on our debts), and we have an automatic deduction for our savings of $50 each month.  Usually his blow money is something like $20 a month.  This month with a special "swap meet", it was $100.  We are on track for meeting our goals of having our debts paid off by February 7, 2017.  Yes it is far away but given our totat indebtedness before we started following DR's plan, Feb. 7 2017 is way sooner than it would have been if we weren't paying a little extra on each of our debts. I think I will just let it go but as we get closer to paying off each debt, spend a little bit more time inspiring him that maybe some of his "blow" money can be spent to kick the debt to the curb.

lactatinggirl, yes, DH's blow money is separate from mine and usually when I buy sewing supplies it comes out of clothing, not blow money.  Like I said before we are on track for our goals.  So I will do what I can to help DH see how paying a little now can make a big difference later.

trekking, I hope you will be able to find a house where you won't be outbid or one where the owner chooses your bid because they don't want to wait for other bids to come in.

AFM, I am thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas travel and gifts.  We have been saving toward those but haven't quite reached our goals with those yet.  What kinds of things do you do for gifts to family for Christmas?

[CookiePie]

I picked up an extra shift at work last night & again tonight!  I'm so glad that I have some money put aside this year for Christmas and hopefully in the next few weeks I'll have enough to completely cover it!  I went way over budget with groceries this month and hope that I can do much better for November.  I'm just chuggin' along.

I agree not to stretch yourself too thin trekkingirl.  There is always something that needs to be done to the house!  Besides your monthly payment make sure you have a decent EF to cover anything that should arise.  Good luck with your search!     

[lactatinggirl]

Originally Posted by trekkingirl 

I don't think I explained myself well. The two areas aren't ten minutes away from each other. More like 45 minutes from each other, maybe an hour? The difference in commute time from DH's work is about 45 min instead of 35 min. I'm not sure what the catch is? At first I thought the price was lower because of an oil refinery but when I looked at the map it seems that the more expensive area is just as exposed to it. Maybe even more exposed because the bay is in between instead of mountains. There seems to be a correlation between closeness to San Francisco and price, as in the farther you are the less you pay? This cheaper area is much hotter and also really windy. Strange combo, I know! It is farther from the coast. I'm not sure how the neighborhoods are because I have never lived there.

Could you go stay at a motel in that area for a weekend and see how you like it? 

[mamayogibear]

Originally Posted by trekkingirl 

We're considering Cordelia, Green Valley, Fairfield, or Suisun. All in Solano County. I would consider Vallejo or Richmond but DH won't do it! The areas that we were trying to buy in but have been outbid were Petaluma, Rohnert Park, and Santa Rosa.

Fairfield is a lot like Vacaville aka Crack-a-ville; lots of drug use and drunks, it's almost more or less the central valley instead of the bay area. Suisun is pretty much the same town but the  better side of the tracks if that makes sense.  Either one is better than Richmond, lol. I've never stayed in Green Valley but had friends whose parents lived there and it seems like a good family place set far enough off the main route and public transit that it has a less urban vibe. I don't know anyone from Cordelia so have no opinion there. I spent a decade all over nor cal but it's been about five years since I've been back.