Getting out of Debt in November! - Page 3

[trekkingirl]

Some days this thread is the only thing that keeps me on MDC! I'm so grateful that there are always a handful of posts from you ladies to keep me here! I can't believe that I am too busy to unwind on MDC like the good ol days! 

Thanks to everyone who comments on my rants despite me hardly ever commenting on yours. I do read your posts and sympathize!

[CookiePie]

I started Christmas shopping with funds that I had saved.  Plus I got my pay from working all those hours the last 2 weeks! 

[dziejen]

We refinanced our car this past weekend and our interest went down considerably.  Now we are intent on paying it off as quickly as possible.  That's the goal for the coming year as well as sticking with our budget and continuing to stay current on our bills.  I am impatient and want to do everything immediately but hubby balances me out and keeps things realistic.

I have some money saved for Christmas and I am in the process of planning our list of gifts to others.  We mostly buy for our children and a few other people so it is not a huge list and we are going to keep it as simple as possilbe.  We are going to try to a lot more "doing" instead of buying this year.

[trekkingirl]

Cookiepie, nice planning! That's excellent. Some time around last Spring I started bank accounts for my three kids and I've been putting $10 per week in each account. I think I may use a bit of these funds for Christmas. I haven't decided yet.

dziejen great job on refinancing your car. You made me realize that I don't even know what my interest rate is. I would need to pay at least a few thousand in order to refi so I've been holding off.

[orangemomma]

dziejen - Awesome on the car refinance! We looked into that option but we would owe $4,000 before we could refinance due our car's high mileage.

I second lilacvioletiris' recommendation of using ingdirect for an EF.  That's where I have mine and it makes it just far enough out of reach but still liquid in 48 hrs or so. Of course I only have $10 in it - but I know I won't touch it.

AFM: Still wondering how to get that $$ needed by November 30th. There were no extra shifts at work - just turned in my time card :(  I do have $30 set aside towards it - so that leaves $170 to go for the deadline.

Oh, and a tiny victory - I repaid a debt to a coworker - less than $3 but I can cross it off my list!

Good luck ladies -  keeping working at it!

[trekkingirl]

as for ING you can sign up for their free checking that has a debit card. transfers from savings to checking go through instantly. no waiting 48 hours. NAK

[lilacvioletiris]

Nice to know trekkingirl. I keep praying that you will get the house you are hoping for soon.

Cookiepie, shopping using savings is so fulfilling, isn't it?  Knowing you aren't going into debt for a gift allows the season to be peaceful.

dziejen - glad you were able to refinance!  Owing less to a finance company as you pay off your debt is always a good thing.

orangemomma - every victory should be celebrated!  Not being a slave to a lender is the best feeling.

AFM, with DH reimbursement, we paid off another credit card today.  Reminds me of a great spiritual I sang with a choir in high school: Freedom, freedom is coming. oh, yes, I know!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gRB_eo6sBY is a great choir singing the song.

[trekkingirl]

thanks lilac! I need all the prayers I can get.

My church surprised me with a $50 giftcard to the local grocery store for Thanksgiving. I was totally caught off guard and it just made my day!

[CookiePie]

It does feel good to shop this way.  I have to say, it is harder to part with the money when it has been saved up!  I'm excited to see where we are at the end of this month, I think I've done really good in the food department. I'm stocking up on Turkey because it is so cheap right now & I have the freezer space!   

Edited by CookiePie - 11/21/12 at 5:43am

[trekkingirl]

That's my plan for next year cookiepie! Of course I have to get the house and the deep freezer first!

[eh bien]

Originally Posted by lilacvioletiris 

Sunrise, resist the credit card!  Resist!  You will feel so much better if you must purchase your Christmas gifts with money that is already in your account.  Now online shopping is great because there is less risk of impulse spending, at least for me.

lactatinggirl, it makes sense why you made the jump to preschool for your mental health and future needs.  Now you just have to work on your EF.  Something that DH and I have done with our EF has been to put it into ingdirect.com so it is still "fluid", but it takes 2 days to transfer it back to our checking account to use it. It helps us not spend it frivolously on "necessary" things. indirect.com also lets you have several accounts that you can "name" with the object you are saving for - we have our EF, immigration, IVF, car maintenance,  and several other categories of known but not monthly expenses. Having it in a separate bank and in separate accounts helps me to see, oh, yeah, we have enough for an oil change, I will transfer it back to checking, or we need money to cover DH's next round of classes, so we transfer that back.  Plus, it pays a little better interest than my local credit union does so the longer it is in the savings account, the better.

Does this mean you have 5+ savings accounts open with ING?

I read this thread often and would like to join the conversation next month. I'm getting my finances in order and organizing. I have quite a bit of debt.. mostly school debt.. and have been working all year to get it down but things always come up. I'd like to get a better grasp on where my money is going and what I really need to be spending on. I'll post next month and introduce myself.

[eirual]

So, that clothes-pin budget tool I made last month: awesomeness!!!

It's working so well I made another for our BS3 goals. DH and I made a list of all of our upcoming wants and needs. They naturally broke into groups during our discussion: time-sensitive wants/needs (DH's ipad mini , a chicken coop, painting DS's room, prepping a garden for spring, a trip to Quebec City) followed by long-term big saving goals (the real meat of it- FFEF, new roof, new-to-us vehicle), followed by future wants (the gravy- wood stove, paydown our mortgage, retimrement savings, a dog, DH's Tesla ).

It's motivating to see what our next step is and to see that realistically, we can make it half way through our list within the next year (hopefully! *knock on wood*). We've stalled at the beginning of BS3 for almost 3 years now since DH has been in school we've saved like crazy to make schooling and moving and buying a house and having a second child happen on cash, we've crashed back to BS1 when we borrowed money from my father to buy our house, and now I feel like we're finally settled enough to actually move forward with BS3. I can't believe how awesome this whole process has been though. I love our simple lifestyle and hope we can whip through BS3. That FREEDOM and SECURITY makes me GITTY!!!! Tee hee hee!!

It's been lots of tough work and attention to detail, but I can finally see the light at the end of the freakin' tunnel. WOOHOO!!!

[lilacvioletiris]

eh bien, yep, I have 8 accounts with ingdirect.com, each for a different purpose - kind of like individual envelopes for me - I needed to see how close we were getting to each of our goals and the separate accounts has worked well for my DH and me.

trekkingirl, what an awesome surprise for Thanksgiving!

CookiePie, having a plan about how money is spent does feel amazing. Have fun rounding up turkeys.

eirual, glad your clothes-pin budget tool worked for you. Visual representations are great, aren't they?

[eh bien]

Thanks for the reply. I actually have a TFSA and a RSP account with them. I've been wanting to switch to their chequing account but there aren't too many branches so it might be tough to deposit cheques. I'm going to open some savings accounts though for my goals. Is that wise even with loads of debt? I could do like $10 a month, I suppose.

[SunRise]

I dont have that many accounts, yet, but now that I have a chunk of an emergency fund, I dont want to ever spend it, so it has now become my long term cash savings fund / (or transitional fund/job loss fund and I have to set up different accounts to save for specific things!

Getting ready to buy christmas gifts w/ allocated cash. woohoo.

[eirual]

Eh bien,

I would go full-force with paying off debt. ...assuming you've built your BEF (that's the first thing to do...really).

The only exception there that I can think of would be if you see a storm cloud heading your way. If you're driving a beater and rely on it to make a living, by all means, go 50/50 with paying off debt and building a replacement car fund. If you KNOW you'll need cash for something, then split between debt and safety net. If you're pretty stable, then give'r hell and fire it all at your debt (after establishing a BEF).

[trekkingirl]

so I offered $50k over the asking price and still no accepted offer.

[lactatinggirl]

Originally Posted by lilacvioletiris 

eh bien, yep, I have 8 accounts with ingdirect.com, each for a different purpose - kind of like individual envelopes for me - I needed to see how close we were getting to each of our goals and the separate accounts has worked well for my DH and me.

trekkingirl, what an awesome surprise for Thanksgiving!

CookiePie, having a plan about how money is spent does feel amazing. Have fun rounding up turkeys.

eirual, glad your clothes-pin budget tool worked for you. Visual representations are great, aren't they?

Is there a minimum amount that you have to have in your accounts to keep them open? I'm thinking about opening accounts for all the envelopes that we don't normally use and then just pulling the money out when we need them (to avoid touching it when we don't really need it), but what if I need to take all the money out? 

[trekkingirl]

If you're talking about ING then I don't think there is a minimum balance requirement. You should call them and chat. They are always super helpful on the phone when I call with questions. Great customer service!

[lilacvioletiris]

eh bien, I have my regular checking and savings with a local bank and then do EFT transfers to ingdirect.com. My different accounts are for things that I budget over several months, but don't pay until down the line but I know the bill is coming.

trekkingirl, hopefully the next bid will be the right one!

lactatinggirl, I think you have to have at least a penny in each account to keep it open. The reason you stated is exactly why I do it - so I won't spend the money in my envelopes just because I have it accessible.