Getting out of Debt in February 2013 - Page 4

[lactatinggirl]

I've been looking around for good deals because I though DD1 was going to need a new wardrobe this spring/summer, but it turns out that we already have most of what she'll need in the size she's in now. Guess she sized up earlier than I thought she did. :-) Also found DD2 a snowsuit that fits (we've been looking for AGES, but they were nowhere to be found) at a consignment store that I'm hoping will fit her next year too. While we were there, the consignment store said they really need clothes, so I'm going to take in some I've been saving up for a while. Then at two other second-hand stores I found myself a dress and cardigan, totaling less than $20. I'm feeling pretty proud of myself with all this. I used to avoid clothes shopping when we first started our financial journey (and before that I spent way too much on clothes!), but now I think I've found a happy medium.

[trekkingirl]

still no news. my realtor sent me an email saying we didn't get the house. I opened the link and it was for another house on the same street. So I emailed back saying this is the wrong house. The link I posted shows not for sale now so I'm hoping they didn't change their minds about selling it. I wish wish wish wish wish wish.......

[esg]

Wishing with you, trekkingirl!

[lilacvioletiris]

Trekkingirl, I hope you get some confirmed news soon. I saw on the link that it was "not for sale" now too.  Hopefully all gets worked out.

I just went and cancelled my gym membership.  I just haven't been using it and with the unknown of whether I will have a job come June with someone is making rethink my financial vision.

[goldfishkate]

Originally Posted by meandk0610 

That is awesome about the credit card! What are you using to maintain your focus?

My dh and I never had debt before having kids and last year our childcare expenses were $100 less then our mortgage. Yikes!  Credit cards became a short term solution to a big money flow problem. We've always been able to pay our monthly bills and min payments on our CC but now we can actually get ahead. I see this as our opportunity before another big bill comes our way.

[trekkingirl]

I didn't get the house, they went with a cash offer!

[orangemomma]

Argh! trekkingirl, I am SO sorry.

[esg]

Sorry trekkingirl.

[trekkingirl]

Well there will be a house for me, or I will get a rental eventually when prices have risen to the point where I can't afford a purchase any more. Maybe I should go post in the tribal area? Maybe some crunchy mama will sell me their house?

[trekkingirl]

http://www.mothering.com/community/t/1374939/wanna-sell-me-your-house-petaluma-rohnert-american-canyon-vallejo

Ok, I started a thread in the tribal area. Here's the link. Do you think there is something I should add?

[esg]

Originally Posted by trekkingirl 

http://www.mothering.com/community/t/1374939/wanna-sell-me-your-house-petaluma-rohnert-american-canyon-vallejo

Ok, I started a thread in the tribal area. Here's the link. Do you think there is something I should add?

Sounds pretty thorough to me. I really hope you get some good responses!

[delightedbutterfly]

Have you tried posting on your local but and sell sites/Craigslist or similar?

What about posting fliers in the areas you are looking at?

Has your realtor contacted local realtors for that area asking if they know of any of their past clients who may be willing to sell?

Other than that, I might suggest having fliers pre made up and going to the areas local parks and asking other parents if they have any friend/family thinking of selling in the area and them give them your flier.

I have heard of realtors/people going door to door asking if they would ever consider selling. Not my first choice but if it works...

[trekkingirl]

My realtor friend called me right after I posted in the tribal area last night. She says she has a house for me but I'm hesitant to take it because it is the very top of my price range. Crawling out of debt would be really hard if I take the house. However, at this rate if I don't take the house I may not get one. Prices in this area have gone up about $50,000 since I started offering six months ago. sigh...............

Details about the house.....Its 2400 sq ft built in 2001. Four bedrooms and four bathrooms  and it has a porch and just sounds so perfect! I looked up the recent sales in the area and most sold for a lot more but it's still really pricey for me. Oh and it's located in the area where DH really wants to live.

I'll keep you guys posted!

Edited by trekkingirl - 2/20/13 at 4:10pm

[delightedbutterfly]

It

Originally Posted by trekkingirl 

My realtor friend called me right after I posted in the tribal area last night. She says she has a house for me but I'm hesitant to take it because it is the very top of my price range. Crawling out of debt would be really hard if I take the house. However, at this rate if I don't take the house I may not get one. Prices in this area have gone up about $50,000 since I started offering six months ago. sigh...............

Details about the house.....Its 2400 sq ft built in 2001. Four bedrooms and four bathrooms 
 and it has a porch and just sounds so perfect! I looked up the recent sales in the area and most sold for a lot more but it's still really pricey for me. Oh and it's located in the area where DH really wants to live.

I'll keep you guys posted!

It sounds amazing! The way I look at it... You set a budget for a reason, we'd all like to pay less but if it's still within budget and it is perfect them go for it! In the long run it may only be $50-100 a month extra than the next house the way mortgages are.

We own two houses and paid substantially more than your top budget so that may skew things a bit but if you weren't happy with your top budget it wouldn't be your top budget y'know?

Crossing my fingers it works out in your favor!

[delightedbutterfly]

Originally Posted by delightedbutterfly 

BS1 $1,000 to start an Emergency Fund Working on this. Babysitting money, sold items and possibly a large chunk from DH's next couple paycheques will go to this.

$470/$1000 Two more weeks of babysitting money added and we got a cash refund and I put it in too and finally cashed the winning Lotto tix, $50 extra to the EF!

BS2 Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball 

2.0 Do the debt snowball, paying all your debts from lowest BALANCE to highest. Currently owe $3767. Would like to have the smaller debt of $930 paid off in the next two PC's. The $2837 is on our personal LOC and I'd like to have that paid off by end April. I'm hoping that I can put $350-550 per pay depending on how much DH works.

Paid $0 to the $2575 LOC today. Stays at $2575.

Put $690 on to the $400 CC today. Brings it up to $1090. 

Since DH's pay was shorted I didn't pay any to debt. However he's been working a TON and I am hoping to have close to a $1000 to put onto debt on his PC on Thursday or probably even enough to pay off the new CC balance. However, I have to take a quick two day trip for an important family event and instead of all of us going, I'm just going to go. I still had to put the flight on the CC however. It was $690. I feel guilty but I know how much it means to my parents. And when we moved away from family, we did so knowing that there may be the odd unbudgeted trip home, we are lucky enough however that it doesn't mess with our budget and once the debt is paid off "Travel" will become a sinking item in our savings.

BS1 $1,000 to start an Emergency Fund Working on this. Babysitting money, sold items and possibly a large chunk from DH's next couple paycheques will go to this.

$610/$1000 Two more weeks of babysitting money added :)

BS2 Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball 

2.0 Do the debt snowball, paying all your debts from lowest BALANCE to highest. Currently owe $2361.23. Would like to have the smaller debt of $240 paid off on the next PC! The $2121.23 is on our personal LOC and I'd like to have that paid off by end April. I'm hoping that I can put $350-550 per pay depending on how much DH works.

Paid $500 to the $2621.23 LOC today. Brings it down to $2121.23.

Put $850 on to the $1090 CC over the last couple weeks. Brings it down to $240. 

I would have put more on but DH's pay was a little low and I'm going away this weekend so it is what it is. We're still on track for the end of April (maybe before!) to have all debt paid off! He's on a steady job now that pays really well so things should be more stable in the PC department at least for a few months!

[frugalmama]

Can I join in here, even though it's nearly the end of the month? I don't so much want to get my debt under control right now, but I do need to work on budgeting. I did FPU 4-5 years ago, but then quit as I don't fully agree with DR and his method especially for very-low income folks.  I can't find my DR stuff right now though, so I will need to read through his stuff again. But from the list in post #1, here is where I stand:

Here's DR's plan:

Pre-Step 1: Get current on your debts and do a budget 
0.1 No new borrowing.Haven't Borrowed since I did FPU the first time
0.2 Talk with spouse and get him/her on the same page as you concerning finances. I'm single
0.3 Do a written budget I have a fluid one on my PC
0.4 Temporarily stop all retirement contributions Never had any to start with
0.5 Get current on all the basics (Shelter, Food, Utilities, Basic clothing) Working on this. We owe $415 to a friend for helping us move, $613 to the electric company for current and back bills, and $145 to the water company for the same. 
0.6 Amputate "toys" (bikes, boats, ATV's etc) to help snowball Any toys we had are LONNNNNNNG gone. I do have a few things I've picked up thrift shopping to sell on ebay and I plan to get those listed today. I also have a bunch of homeschooling books {I make my living selling HSing books online and at book swaps} to list online as well. 
0.7 Cut lifestyle (Cut cable, cell, extras, eating out) and/or get a second job to raise $1000 EF. Only extra I have is internet, and I really need it to sell things online. We were doing the whole free net at the library and mcdonalds but it was costing us more in bus fare and time than it was worth. 
0.8 Get current on ALL bills See above 0.5 - those are our only bills at the moment. Everything else is long in collections. 

BS1 $1,000 to start an Emergency Fund $0 in the EF at present, shooting for a goal of $500 since we are low income.
1.1 Chop up/freeze CC's (You have an EF now) Haven't used CC's in years
1.2 Get Health insurance NOW if in the US Both DD and myself have Medicaid
1.3 Get Life insurance NOW if you have considerable debt/your family couldn't make it financially if you died. Skipping as we cannot financially afford the expense.
1.4 Amputate cars that you can't pay off within 24 months Don't have a car

BS2 Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball
2.0 Do the debt snowball, paying all your debts from lowest BALANCE to highest. I plan to pull my credit report, and order the debts by date first. Those that are close to falling off my credit report {7 years old} will be ignored as will any older than that. Priority is to somehow rehab my defaulted student loans. 

BS3 Three to six months of expenses in savings
3.1 Start car replacement fund Don't have a car - we use city bus. 
3.2 Save up 20% for home purchase OR pay down existing mortgage to the point you can drop PMI. Own Our Home free and clear
3.3 Start furniture or other non-essential stuff replacement fund We furniture shop at thrift shops, and don't really need anything other than a few dressers.

BS4 Invest 15 percent of household income for retirement I like the concept, but if I do this I lose my health insurance, thus costing me $$$. Postponing. 

BS5 College funding for children See Above. Postponing

BS6 Pay off home early Home is already paid for!

BS7 Build wealth and give! Invest in mutual funds and real estate

Trekkin- have you looked at HUD foreclosures? A lot of realtors don't consider them at all, and they may or may not be listed in regular MLS searches. But you can find some GREAT deals - we just bought a 4 bed 1.5 bath 1366 sq ft house for $33k

[orangemomma]

Welcome frugalmama! Congrats on owning your home - what a great feeling!

[orangemomma]

Originally Posted by orangemomma 

For me, January was a big disaster - so I am hoping that February is a bit better.  At the start of this month, I had a $904 deficit between my income and expenses for the month. That's a lot of money for me. I am working hard at trying to bring in more money. My boss did give me a few more hours work this pay period.

So, some bills are just not going to get paid this month.

Goals:

1. No more credit card use - this shouldn't be hard as they are now all maxed thanks to the visit from Murphy last month.

2. Continue with 50 cents/week savings plan

3. Update resume to look for more work.

4. Prioritize which bills to pay this month

Good Luck to all!

I know February is not over yet but I have no more money coming in for the month - unless some falls from the sky :)

Goals:

1. Achieved - like I said above, not hard because they are maxed.

2. Achieved - deposited $13 to my ING account - thanks lilacvioletiris for the inspiration on this one!

3. Achieved - resume updated, but not sent anywhere - that's the goal for March

4. I did prioritize which bills to pay - hoping I made the right choices.

Paid: both of the mortgages, all credit cards the minimum payments, sports etc for DS,  as much of the taxes and oil bill as I could. Left unpaid were: both student loans, cancelled appt to get oil change on car, rescheduled eye doctor appt to March, there are more little things -  I decided I will have to wait/go without.

edited to add: My shortfall at the beginning of the month was $904 and I ended up being only $794 short - still a lot of money but better.

[dziejen]

Getting back in the swing of things here. We used our tax refund to pay a big chunk of our car loan and to do some maintenance and repairs to dh's car (including new tires). We were also able to have a family day with the kids and go to museum/out to dinner which was a big treat this school vacation. Other than the car loan, which we hope to pay by this time next year, we have a $900 medical bill and a cc bill in collections. Our mortgage is huge but we can't refinance yet so we are plugging away at all the smaller stuff. I am working an extra shift tonight which will probably cancel out not working Sunday if we get the predicted snow in our area. What really costs us a lot is all of our medical/dental bills - we have a high deductible and a PPO. Just going to keep being optimistic and looking forward - cannot wait to be debt free!

[trekkingirl]

It's official, we're in contract for a short sale!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Waiting to hear the counter offer from the bank, this could take 30 days. When it's a short sale what they really mean is that it's a "long" sale!

 

Edited by trekkingirl - 2/22/13 at 1:28pm