Getting out of Debt in February 2013 - Page 2

[trekkingirl]

We just got our refund! My EF is now up to $10,770

[orangemomma]

Awesome trekkingirl - now come on house! Fingers crossed for you.

[veganmama44]

Yay trekkingirl!

[EmsMom]

Originally Posted by trekkingirl 

We just got our refund! My EF is now up to $10,770

fantastic!!!

[BaileyB]

Wow! Good job!

[SunRise]

Originally Posted by trekkingirl 

We just got our refund! My EF is now up to $10,770

Originally Posted by EmsMom 

fantastic!!!

Yay!

[CookiePie]

Originally Posted by trekkingirl 

We just got our refund! My EF is now up to $10,770

That is nothing to sneeze at!  Way to go!

[lactatinggirl]

Originally Posted by trekkingirl 

We just got our refund! My EF is now up to $10,770

Jealous! We're still waiting for the IRS to be "ready" to take ours. Should be the end of this month or next month. Congrats on the huge EF too!

[BaileyB]

Oh man, this next pay period is going to be difficult. DH has his own busniess and then pays us with regular paychecks which has been coming every 2 weeks, but now that we are doing the DR thing it turns out it is easier to keep track of bills and expenses if he pays us on the 1st and 15th of every month instead. Which is all fine and dandy except that this next paycheck has to last us 3 weeks now instead of 2...and I already spent some to get a few things before we leave for out of town tomorrow for the weekend. Then when I went to the bank yesterday to get some money out the teller told me that my account was going to overdraft at the end of the day because our electric bill was getting paid that day. Ugh, now I have a paycheck coming Monday that has to last us 3 weeks, I have already spent some of it, and I have to replace what I transferred from our savings account to cover the electric bill. Good thing that other than a handful of doctor's appts and being out of town this weekend we have nothing going on until the first of March, which is when we get paid again.

I hope that made sense, I feel like I was rambling....

[dziejen]

Hooray, Trekkingirl! We got our refund today too.
BaileyB, hang on there. It was hard for us to get used to a new way of spending and stretching money but once you get on track it will get easier.
Now that our refund is here I paid some bills that are immediately due and dh and I are going to go over our budget again tonight. We are also getting ready for what is expected to be a huge snowstorm which means no/very slow work for me this weekend. Luckily our meal plan for Feb has been going well and I only needed to pick up a few things;we are still well within our food budget which feels great.

[BaileyB]

dziejen - we are lucky to have a well stocked kitchen now too. And I have been doubling and tripling a lot of our recipes lately to freeze so even our freezer is stocked too. I really only have things like cheese and bananas and bread on the list to get.

[trekkingirl]

thanks for all the love and support guys!

[meandk0610]

I'll put my own updates in a bit but wanted to catch up on everybody!

Originally Posted by lilacvioletiris 

I know I just transferred and paid off a credit card through a balance transfer to another credit card with a 0 percent for 12 months and then lower interest rate after that.  I want to get rid of credits cards!  I am not sure what DR has to say about it. I didn't open a new card to get the balance transfer option though. I still think it was for the best for me and my DH though.  Look at the amount of balance transfer fees and the overall decrease in interest rate before you do it though.

Tonight is the dumping debt lesson.  I hope DH and I can better understand each other with the debt snowball plan after we watch this together.

Now up to 24 applications submitted on the search for a new job.

Wow! Good luck with the job search!

Originally Posted by veganmama44 

Happy February everyone!

It's looking like it's going to be an expensive month for me. We are considering dropping the cable, but will probably invest in a WiFi DVD player to stream hulu. DP works a ton an then comes home and works more sewing his heart out trying to get a side business going, so h likes to hav something in th background. Who can blame him. Also oldest DS gets his license at the end of the month etc. Tax return will save me as far as stocking my EF. We haven't done our taxes yet, but last year we got a chunk o change back. That should all go into fully funding the big EF. Then onto down payment savings....
How's everyone else doing?

Hoping that doing my taxes will save me as well...

Originally Posted by BaileyB 

Ooooooppps! It's february now, heehee.

Well, I feel pretty good. I actually made it to the second week in our 2 week pay period with money leftover! Even with getting food to bring to a superbowl party and DD's bday party. DH went to fill our gas tank up on Sunday and I handed them the gas envelope and there was a $50 in there. He looked at me surprised and said, "So, I can fill it up?" haha. Usually I tell him to only put in $20 or something because I think I might need the rest of the gas money to pay for something else later in the week. I was like, "YEP! FILL IT UP!!"

That is an awesome feeling!

Originally Posted by trekkingirl 

Got rejected on another offer today, but what's new!

Originally Posted by trekkingirl 

I'm still here. I'm now on my third realtor. Hopefully this means third ones a charm instead of three strikes, you're out. Can't wait to get into a house so I can get back to paying down debt instead of saving it all for the house.

Have you done (or thought of doing) a vision board around this?

Originally Posted by trekkingirl 

We just got our refund! My EF is now up to $10,770

Holy smackerel! That's a good chunk of change!

Originally Posted by BaileyB 

Oh man, this next pay period is going to be difficult. DH has his own busniess and then pays us with regular paychecks which has been coming every 2 weeks, but now that we are doing the DR thing it turns out it is easier to keep track of bills and expenses if he pays us on the 1st and 15th of every month instead. Which is all fine and dandy except that this next paycheck has to last us 3 weeks now instead of 2...and I already spent some to get a few things before we leave for out of town tomorrow for the weekend. Then when I went to the bank yesterday to get some money out the teller told me that my account was going to overdraft at the end of the day because our electric bill was getting paid that day. Ugh, now I have a paycheck coming Monday that has to last us 3 weeks, I have already spent some of it, and I have to replace what I transferred from our savings account to cover the electric bill. Good thing that other than a handful of doctor's appts and being out of town this weekend we have nothing going on until the first of March, which is when we get paid again.

I hope that made sense, I feel like I was rambling....

Scary feeling but look on the bright side - you had savings to work with instead of having to put it on a credit card!

[meandk0610]

Here's DR's plan:

Pre-Step 1: Get current on your debts and do a budget
0.1 No new borrowing. So far so good!
0.2 Talk with spouse and get him/her on the same page as you concerning finances.
0.3 Do a written budget. Done.
0.4 Temporarily stop all retirement contributions
0.5 Get current on all the basics (Shelter, Food, Utilities, Basic clothing). Done.
0.6 Amputate "toys" (bikes, boats, ATV's etc) to help snowball. Have started listing a few things on Ebay, nothing big though.
0.7 Cut lifestyle (Cut cable, cell, extras, eating out) and/or get a second job to raise $1000 EF. Done as much as I am willing/able? No Netflix, ex pays for cell phone, no extras, ate out once this month at Subway on way to MD from VA to visit ex-h only because I hadn't packed enough food.
0.8 Get current on ALL bills. Done.

BS1 $1,000 to start an Emergency Fund.
1.1 Chop up/freeze CC's (You have an EF now). Not frozen but don't regularly use.
1.2 Get Health insurance NOW if in the US. On Medicaid for MD, only covered for ER visits in VA. Does that count?
1.3 Get Life insurance NOW if you have considerable debt/your family couldn't make it financially if you died. Working on getting homeowner's insurance now, will do life insurance next.
1.4 Amputate cars that you can't pay off within 24 months

I put the money that I was saving for the plumber into my EF so that it totals $544. My ex says he's going to give me some money out of his tax return to pay for the plumber. I'm hoping to be able to get back enough money to both pay off my lowest CC and put a metal roof on the house. I don't even have enough money to put more patches on it right now. I REALLY need some money back from taxes! I don't make enough to have a much taxes taken out but I got my equity out of the marital house last year as well as got my share of ex's 401k. I used it to buy a HUD house, cash, and do most of the major work inside but didn't have enough left to do the roof. I couldn't do the roof first due to mold in the crawlspace and carpeting. Had to get the remediation done and new carpeting/padding/vinyl in bathrooms first.

[lilacvioletiris]

trekkingirl, that is awesome about getting your refund back! Nice EF too!

BaileyB, I hope that you will be able to make it work.  Stretching between pay periods is tough.  I think we have finally gotten ahead of some of the bills so we have the money for our automatic withdrawals from checking before they come out.

Today was another snow day in Michigan.  I needed the extra sleep - instead of 5 a.m. I slept until 10 a.m.  Priceless.  I have to enjoy it while I don't have kids because hopefully in another 2 months I will be pregnant after our IVF cycle.

[trekkingirl]

whats a vision board????

[MonkeyPrincess]

Just jumping right in. 

After years of robbing peter to pay paul, no budget even possible, we are *finally* in a position to catch up and - dare I say it - get ahead. 

I'm looking for some accountability to keep on track. 

We don't have any credit cards or loans at all, and own both of our very old cars. We rent our house. 

Pre-Step 1

Our budget is pretty simple, since its just monthly living expenses. The bill part is easy. I have a hard time with stuff like clothes/shoes/etc for kids and extras (holidays, vacations, etc.) so I need to work on incorporating that into our monthly budget.  

We are current on our bills and basics as of this month. 

BS1 

We, as of this month, have $1000 emergency fund, I also added a $500 non-emergency fund (for things I might see on sale/at a great price, so I can take advantage and not dip into the EF - like seasonal stuff on clearance, etc.)

We don't have cc, we do have health insurance (albeit very expensive, almost another rent payment!) and life insurance (I need to add renters), and we own our cars.   

BS2

We have no consumer debt. 

We do have a couple medical bills that I need to gather and pay...I'd estimate less than $500 or so. 

I also have two parking tickets that I absolutely need to pay.

BS3

Both of our cars our in good working order, reliable. But over 20 years old. I'd like to work towards a newer one. 

We do need to save to purchase our house. 

I desperately need new furniture, area rugs (its in our lease to have them to protect the hardwood), new curtains (the ones that came with the house are seriously decades old and literally falling apart). The walls are brown wainscoting and its seriously depressing, we can't paint so it is a priority to me to make my house more of a home in all the ways I can. 

Part of the problem with staying on top of our finances is the way we get paid. I get paid randomly, as births happen. My husband is a mechanic, and only gets paid for the work he does when its there, and there isn't much... So while we may have enough on paper each month, we always wind up behind because the bills are due before we get paid. And then there are late fees, bounced check fees, etc. I would really like to have a month ahead to make sure that doesn't happen. It would save so much money! 

I am interested in finding a budget system both my husband and I can access and use easily to make sure we stay on top of things. Off to search what's out there, but happy for any suggestions, if you have something that works really well for you. 

[orangemomma]

MonkeyPrincess - no advice on the budgeting systems but wanted to say welcome!

[BaileyB]

The funny thing is that I have gotten so use to paying an extra $350 a month on our car that I forgot that it was an extra payment so looks like by skipping the extra payment this month we will actual be ok and have enough extra to get caught up on getting the new baby things we were looking at. haha. Although now the car will be paid off in Oct now instead of Sept.

[BaileyB]

Originally Posted by lilacvioletiris 

trekkingirl, that is awesome about getting your refund back! Nice EF too!

BaileyB, I hope that you will be able to make it work.  Stretching between pay periods is tough.  I think we have finally gotten ahead of some of the bills so we have the money for our automatic withdrawals from checking before they come out.

Today was another snow day in Michigan.  I needed the extra sleep - instead of 5 a.m. I slept until 10 a.m.  Priceless.  I have to enjoy it while I don't have kids because hopefully in another 2 months I will be pregnant after our IVF cycle.

Good luck on the IVF cycle! We are having a snow day today. It started out as rain, to freezing rain, and now huge snowflakes.