Anyone else ready to GET OUT OF DEBT #3 - Page 3

[kerc]

I just transferred my 17% cc to a 0% cc (till fall 2005!) all new stuff is 9%. YEAH! (the new stuff rate is important to me bc we are in a transition stage in my life right now -- probably last year of many spent working towards a phd. hubby's phd too!).

[Piglet68]

Just popping in to say hi. Not too much to report these days. End of the month is drawing near and I'm pretty sure we are going to end up dipping into our overdraft account. However, we will have paid off one debt in full AND we have made a big payment on a second that will carry us through until August. And we have started making a dent (bigger payment) on the third on our list.

We will also be taking out of my paycheque whatever we have overdrawn so that we start July with an overdraft balance of zero owing. Since we have two less payments to make in July, we should be able to make up the difference, and hopefully come out even at the end of July.

My biggest source of stress right now is that we are moving in late August and DH does not have a job lined up. He will be doing some work from his own business at home, but this will be new and we have no idea how much income it will bring in yet, so we really can't count on that at first. There is one company we found that works in his trained field, and I'm trying so hard not to but...I'm really pinning my hopes on them. If he can get a job there, he can work his 40 hrs a week, and make a nice enough income that we'll have a nice apartment and be comfortable while I'm SAHM-ing. If that doesn't pan out, he will have to get a bunch of "joe jobs" that don't pay very well, and I'm a bit concerned about how we are going to make ends meet without having him working 70 hours a week. We have to find an apartment, and that is tough without knowing exactly what our income will be.

At least by then we will be debt-free. Our property sale is scheduled to go through in September, and the profits from that will pay off all our credit card debts and our car. I won't feel the relief though until that money is in the bank!

[angel04345]

Congrats Piglet!!!!! I hope that everything goes the way you want it to! We will have two bills payed off and a big chunk put down on the last!!! YEEEHAAAA in Feb or March of 2005! It will be wonderful and until then we are just surviving!!!! I am taking my money from one child I watch and saving it up and then christmas and bday shopping!!! Takes a lot out of me! Does anyone have any suggestions about thrifty christmas gifts??? My brother goes all out on my little girl but I never do on his kids. I would like to get them something cool this year but it depends I guess! We have atleast twenty people to buy for. (thats just my side all but three on his side are not celebrating holidays for religous reasons.) have a great day girls......happy saving!!!!

[Peppermint]

Piglet- I think you are going to be the first to "get out of debt". That will be such an inspiration to the rest of us .

I am plugging along here, not incurring any new debt .

[Indigo73]

angel04345 - I make 99% of my gifts - Cookies in a Jar, Mittens, Scarves etc. I search the yard sales for big canning jars and yarn scraps and start any knitting, sewing and crocheting (the more portable the better) now so I don't fee overwhelmed come November.

[Peppermint]

We also make about 99% of the gifts we give. For weddings we often give a framed "Irish Marriage Blessing" that my dh designed on the computer, I get frames for $2 at Wamart :.

What other frugal things do we do? hmm.. lots actually, but I am having a hard time thinking of examples right now. I use coupons combined with sales to get things like soap, deoderant, toothpaste, toothbrushes for free or at most .50.

I plan my meals to make good left-overs. ie) Tuesday we had homemade mac and cheese, Wednesday we had tacos, Thursday I put the left-over taco meat and mac and cheese together for a meal. (my apologies to the Vegans on the thread : )

I also use flannel squares for wipes. MIL makes receiving blankets for baby shower gifts, then cuts squares from the leftover fabric and serges the edges for me (she's not all bad ).

Can't think of anything more right now, the BFing, cloth diapers, whole foods that WOW people on other sites I visit are not exactly impressive here at MDC. :LOL

[newmainer]

Kristin, that is a *great* idea about freezing veggies ahead of time for soup. I never thought of that. We always have some veggies that are on teh verge of going but that i dont' have a plan for.

We make a lot of our christmas and holiday gifts too. Framed pictures of dd are always a hit. we also have canned in the past, especially when we had an apple tree. we canned homemade apple pie filling- got raves!! This year we are going to do tomato/pasta sauce, i'll be knitting, and I have a few other ideas. definitely not buying much this year at all. angel- can you guys draw for names or something? 20 people is a lot. I think cool things for kids are like a gift certificate for an afternoon outing with you... or reading them a story on tape... putting together a custom "book" with a story you write and then make pictures from magazines or whatever. Not as flashy as storebought stuff, but more meaningful and less impactful resource wise.

piglet- you definitely inspire me!! its so cool to see someone get out of debt while the thread is still going. sometimes it seems like its going to be forever.

ttfn...

[scrapadoozer]

Hi, I am new to this thread! We have paid down all of our debts except our mortgage (which is brand spankin' new!) and DH's student loan (over halfway paid off!) Our problem is saving money. We have next to nothing in savings not to mention no retirement plan (my husband works for a small company with no 401K so it's all our responsibility to make it happen) I read the other day that you have to pay yourself first or you'll never pay yourself at all. This seems really true.
*OK, here's my tip. Picture you are in a store and you spy some doo-dad that you think you MUST have...make yourself hold off and think about if you really want/need it for a few minutes. More times that not the fever for the doo-dad passes away in that time and it's not hard to leave it sitting there on the shelf! There's been some great tips so far...anyone have anymore?

[newmainer]

thanks Jenny, and welcome to the thread! we got a lot of Mainers on this thread- I *think* that's a good thing....(that we are all here and supportive, not that we are all in debt..lol). And thanks for the tip!

[kathsmom]

OK, will somebody just slap me? I had to go to Target to buy a few toiletry supplies and thought I would just stop in TJ Maxx to see if they had anything. Well, I bought a light blue leather purse for $50. : My mother has this exact same purse in black and I know she paid $100-$120 for it at Nordstrom's. I loved the color and thought it would go well with a black shirt/capri pant set, because it has a trim of blue and lime green polka dots. Part of me wants to keep it, but the other part of me is saying to take it back. We might wind up having to buy a new stroller, because DH ran over my Mac Quest and we are waiting for the new wheels to come (they should be here on Monday). If we can't fix it with the wheels, we are probably going to have to buy a new stroller.

AACCKK! I just paid down a huge chunk on the credit card and just charged this purse. I need more self control!

For the mama who posted about having 20 people to buy for at Christmas, we just decided that only the children would get presents. It has helped our budget tremendously and since DH and I don't live near our siblings and their spouses, it makes it hard to find presents that they would like, need, or enjoy. We do one nephew who is almost 27 and we don't buy him presents at Christmas anymore. We stopped when he was about 25, because he makes almost as much as my DH does and he is single and doesn't have a mortgage, a wife, and 2 kids to support. Sometimes, he will get us a gift card to Home Depot or something like that, but he doesn't expect anything in return.

[kerc]

ok kathsmom walk away slowly and TAKE IT BACK!!!
or put it on layaway so you can *pay* for it not charge it.


gifts: on the crafting/sewing forum there's a sticky thread that is a listing of homemade gifts. Overall we only do gifts for kids. We were the first to request "no gift for us" once we got married and it has made life very low stress. who the heck knows what to buy for dh's aunt? We do gifts for dh's brother and mom and dad, etc. Closer relations. My family has always just done gifts for the kids. Occasionally if we see something we LOVE then we'll buy it, but it doesn't imply the need for reciprocity.

will check back in later more to say but dh is waiting for me.

[A&A]

I think it's also inspirational to run your debt through a debt calculator to see how many months (or years) it will take you to pay it off at the amount you are currently paying it, and how much faster you can get it paid off if you pay more per month. (For example, I will get out of debt 4 months faster if I pay an additional $10 per month.) Just do a search for "debt calculator."

[kerc]

i'm back now. dh was busy putting together our "new" tv cabinet. A piece of junk particle board thing that was a cast off. We took it out of the car and it fell apart. So we had some drywall screws laying around and ta-da. new cabinet for us. And actually it doesn't look half-bad.

i spent A LOT at the grocery this week. More than 2 x as much as normal. But our cupboard was BARE and I was tired of not having any food. Ok pasta and butter we did have, but nothing with real protein in it.

We went camping and borrowed the thermarest we keep talking about buying. Small victory of the week.

[angel04345]

I am throwing my SIL a shower. Does anyone think it would be unacceptable to get her just one nice cloth dipe (shes asked for them) and then some other baby care items?

[lilyka]

HI checkin' in.

Just wanted to say some times it is worth it in the long run to spend a little. my car was getting really bad gas milage. As in 11 miles/gal. For a 96 mini van. we should have been getting at least 25. I figured we just got screwed. My friend harrassed me and I took it in to get a tune up, which they said probably wouldn't help but that there was definitely something wrong with it. We ended up putting $250 worth of repairs on it (stupid little sensor) on the bredit card but this weekend we took a road trip (the stress that inspired me to do somehting baout our crappy gas milage) and I got 22 miles to a gallon. w ith that tune up and an oil change we will probably hit 25 mpg. not too shabby. I hated putting that money on the cc but we haven't got any savings yet an it will save us $40-$80 a month. so it will be paid off in no time. And in a couple months we will have that much extra to work with.

maintaing your appliance will lower what ever bills are associated with them. keeping your car tuned, you filters clean, etc. . . are worth the monay you have to invest. Poorly running stuff can suck the money right out of you bank account.

[newmainer]

Good thoughts, lilyka. we are pretty good about changing the oil in our car (03 Subaru, leased- the only way we could afford a new car, which we needed before dd was born) but really need to be better about getting the warranty check ups and things.

I had meant to write back last night in response to kathsmom's post. I support you in returning that purse!! The layaway option is good.. or can you trim somewhere else if you really need it, so you can pay cash? Or better yet, how many time are you going to wear the outfit to match to justify its own purse? I was also struck by what you said, that you would just "stop by TJ Maxx to see if they had anything." Girl, I am guilty of that, and can't remember a thing i've bought on those "just popping in" trips- but I always come out with something! I am soooo trying to break that habit- especialy with the grocery store.

ok, deep breath. you know what our grocery bill was this month *not* counting the full payment for our CSA (community supported agriculture) subscription? $650!!! . There were so many purchases that were under $50- but lots of them. I know I've been championing organic here and there you go, mamas- we pay for it!! On the positive side, I know that I only started tracking my expenses on June 12th- though it feels like so much longer. And at that time was when I really started to be conscious of how much I was spending on groceries, meal planning, etc... Obviously, I am a slow learner!! . So my goal is to cut that in half the next month. But we are actually going back to California to visit in-laws and friends for the next month (cheap trip, really. dh works wherever he can bring the laptop, so not really a vacation for him. staying with all friends and family. minimal food expense, etc...). But i will still track spending. and then when we get home, the pressure is on.

I was amazed as I added up our spending for the month in all of our categories, that we have *never* done this before. We've made budgets ahead of time (which of course never worked, and now I know why), but never added up our spending at the end of the month. Such an eyeopener!! I saw that gas and eating out and things were the least fo our expenses, while food- obviously- and household expenses (things for repair, installing tile, etc...) were our highest. And those are the things that we know are going to go down, so at least that is positive. We also made our asset list and our liabilities list. and guess what- negative networth!! But, i know that every month our liabilities will decrease and we can watch those numbers sink, so I look forward to that.

Otherwise, I am hung up today with a bad, bad stiff neck. Can barely move left. Had to go to the chiro this morning after sleeping badly and enflaming all the joints. ugh. luckily mom is in town and has dd for several hours. Poor peanut, I can't pick her up!! . Doc says should get steadily better by tomorrow. Heres hoping. I did send dh out for a People magazine. The $3.00 of mind trash is much needed right now...lol.

keep on keepin' on....

[kerc]

The $3.00 of mind trash is much needed right now

:LOL

Cheers to you for tracking the expenses. YAY mama! Knowing where it is going is half the battle.

[newmainer]

[QUOTE=kerc]:LOL

Dh came home with a People, InTouch (only .25!) *and* a Star . Feeling pretty trashy about now... and missing dd! my mom has had her for hours... ready to get back to my regularly scheduled life now. what the hell did i do with all this time before dd?

[Peppermint]

Originally Posted by angel04345

I am throwing my SIL a shower. Does anyone think it would be unacceptable to get her just one nice cloth dipe (shes asked for them) and then some other baby care items?

I think one nice cloth diaper is GREAT! If I were you, I'd get her the one dipe, and make a list of websites to buy dipes, and also include tips on what dipes for when (ie- KL 0s for newborns, but prefolds and BSWW for older kids) and how to wash instructions.

For my SIL's shower I bought her used books, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, Nursing Mother Working Mother, Dr. Sears stuff, etc. I also made her a nursing shawl (she is not a NIP person), and made her signs for the basinett at the hospital ("I am a nursing baby, please no pacifiers or bottles, just bring me to my mommy") and signs for the door at home ("Mom and baby are getting some much needed rest, we are so glad you want to see us, we will be up for visitors soon, leave a note and we'll give you a call")

Also- give her "coupons" for free meals and babysitting.

[newmainer]

Actually, I had something else to post. Forgot. Is related to expenses in a roundabout way.

So, as I mentioned, dh and I have remodeled this house that we bought in February (first home). Our property is adjacent to about 20 acres of lakeshore owned by the local water company. We really bought the house for the views and the location- hills, lake, woods. We love it. We have put nearly $50,000. into this house.

We got a letter today informing us that the water company is going to be selling their 20 acres of lakeshore at approx. $35,000 an acre. What?! We had heard this rumour when we first moved in, but didnt' anticipate it happening for awhile. The water company wants to know if we are interested in buying any property by July 15th. As residents with abutting property, we have some preferential treatment.

Clearly, dh and i do not have this extra money (have't even discussed borrowing from family or if any family might want to buy some). We dont' even know what any of the neighbors will think of doing.

What does this mean for us?

If the land is sold in acre parcels, we could have a huge development between us and the lake, thereby killing our view and the whole reason we really bought this property.

Even if we were to come up with the money to buy maybe the acre between us and the lake, if the rest of it is developed- what's the point of having an acre? Its all woods- which is great, we love it, but not if its surrounded in development, kwim?

The H2o company has said that they have already had the soil tested, etc...and it seems like they are ready to move on this. We haven't had the house reappraised since we've done the work. While we are definitely looking at an increase in value, I am not sure that we have enough in it that if we were to sell right now (which we aren't thinking about, really) we would get enough money to pay off what we owe for the work on the house. So, if that were the case we wouldn't sell now or in the near future, but wait on it. I'm concerned that a develpment will not help the value of our house.

ugh!! we *just* moved here!! anyone have any experience with anything remote like this? i am worried about losing money on our house and screwing ourselved over.

I know this is a bit OT, and its another long post from me- so, thanks for reading. just feeling a bit bummed and like we are having the rug pulled out from under us .