Dumping Debt with Dave Ramsey/DECEMBER - Page 7

[mumkenna&lucas]

oh I forgot, Right now our Efund is not quite an efund since we have to get caught up on a few bills This should be an actual Efund by mid-january

[annethcz]

Desiree- Ack! The same thing happened to DH 2 months ago. He got caught going 75 in a 55 on our little state highway out in the middle of nowhere. Luckily our county has a special driver reeducation class that you can take in leiu of paying the ticket. The class was half as expensive as the ticket would've been, and it stays off of DH's record.

Amanda- The truck payment is high, and so are your gas costs. We spend a similar amount for gas each month, so I understand. But is there any way you can cut back on the number of miles you drive? The other thing that stands out is your DD's tuition. What is the tuition for? Given the amount I'd guess preschool? If I were you, I'd reevaluate that expense. How much are you paying per hour for your DD to attend? Is there anything else you could do with your DD that would cost less? Playgroups and library story hours are free. And many communities offer community education programs for a low cost.

[mumkenna&lucas]

Originally Posted by annethcz

Amanda- The truck payment is high, and so are your gas costs. We spend a similar amount for gas each month, so I understand. But is there any way you can cut back on the number of miles you drive? The other thing that stands out is your DD's tuition. What is the tuition for? Given the amount I'd guess preschool? If I were you, I'd reevaluate that expense. How much are you paying per hour for your DD to attend? Is there anything else you could do with your DD that would cost less? Playgroups and library story hours are free. And many communities offer community education programs for a low cost.

Gas is tough for us..My dh commutes so with gas prices as high as they are right now, we have trouble getting it much lower. I have decreased my driving mileage.
yes that is for my dd's preschool. It is for 3 days a week from 8:30-11:30
thanks!

[phathui5]

mumkenna&lucas,

Can you cancel the cable?

You have dd tuition at $185 a month. Is this something you can stop until you're out of debt (keep her home)?

Vehicle gas seems high to me too.

[my2girlz]

Can I join?

We are in the middle of refinacing since we were in an ARM that was adjusting to over 10% next month!!! Our payment was scheduled to go up $250ish a month. DH is in sales and is salary plus commission. With the economy the way it is, it seems everyone is holding onto their money very tightly. We made the mistake of depending on those commission checks since they had been consistent for 5 years. All of a sudden this year we lost nearly $50,000/yr in commission. Talk about scary! We were in the hole every month. We used up our savings since I was thinking it was only short term. DH and I FINALLY sat down and wrote down EVERYTHING. Yikes! Talk about a scary task! The only way to get out is to pay off our debt (way too much) and refinance the house.

We were able to lock in last week when it the rate was at 5.5% fixed!! We will PMI and property taxes rolled in, but even with that our payment is lower than before the adjustment that is scheduled for next month.

I called all of our credit cards and chewed them all down to low interest rates.

Doing all of this I was able to get us back in the black and that's without commission!!

I will be able to get my $1000 EF completely funded by the end of next week and then we'll tackle the debt. We should be out of CC debt by the end of 2009 and that doesn't include any commission checks or any bonuses dh receives from work.

We have a plan!! Thanks for letting me join and to take this journey with you.

[mumkenna&lucas]

Originally Posted by my2girlz

I will be able to get my $1000 EF completely funded by the end of next week and then we'll tackle the debt. We should be out of CC debt by the end of 2009 and that doesn't include any commission checks or any bonuses dh receives from work.

We have a plan!! Thanks for letting me join and to take this journey with you.

Thats great that you'll have your efund in place!! Congrats!

[DesireeH]

Welcome my2girlz! That's great you have a plan in place! We have one of those bad ARM loans too, almost 10% now. Yuck. Yay for sitting down and tackling it with DH....that's sometimes the hardest step.

Amanda- Instead of $72 for phone can you get vonage or another voip plan for less? They have a 24.99 unlimited to US and Canada plan or a 14.99 for 500 mins. We had the latter for 4 years and it worked fine, I only cancelled cause we went down to our cells instead since we arent big phone talkers anyways.

[mumkenna&lucas]

Originally Posted by DesireeH

Amanda- Instead of $72 for phone can you get vonage or another voip plan for less? They have a 24.99 unlimited to US and Canada plan or a 14.99 for 500 mins. We had the latter for 4 years and it worked fine, I only cancelled cause we went down to our cells instead since we arent big phone talkers anyways.

The $72 is phone and internet..I'll have to check into Vonage though! Can you get internet from them also??

[phathui5]

Originally Posted by mumkenna&lucas

The $72 is phone and internet..I'll have to check into Vonage though! Can you get internet from them also??

We pay $48 a month for phone and internet from Verizon. It's the "half-speed" dsl, but it works great.

[TattooedMama]

How to keep from being "Frugally Righteous?"

So how do you keep yourself from judging people that are being "foolish" with their money?
Let's just say for the sake of this argument that I am talking about folks who aren't debt free and rolling in the dough.
Cause if you are... you can do whatever the heck you want with your moola!
I'm talking about all the folks I know IRL that say "Oh I have no money, I can't do/buy X,Y,Z."
But they eat out fast food everyday, have cable TV, etc.etc. Blah, blah. (And yes, this is a conversation I had with my SIL yesterday. )

I am trying so hard not to judge them. It is everyone's right to live their own life as they see fit. We are judged by some people we know for doing the TTMM and we think that is silly of them to care what we are doing.
So how do you keep from being "righteous" in your frugality?
I need help with this. Because when my IRL family and friends say things like they can't afford any Christmas gifts for their kids but they spent X amount of dollars at Starbucks or McDonald's this week it makes me:
1.) Sad for them and their kids
and
2.) Worried I will come off like a frugal zealot if I try and offer any advice.
(And they DO ask for advice. I would stay the heck out of it otherwise. )

[~PurityLake~]

Maybe if you think of it like this:
To poor people, the starbucks daily makes them feel special, makes them enjoy life's little pleasures, and it's worth the trade off...
Enjoying every day of the year instead of one day of gift giving.

[annethcz]

Welcome My2Girlz I'm pretty new to this thread also. It's awesome that you have a plan.

As planned, I closed my old business bank account today and deposited the $ into savings. EF: 272/1000 It still seems pathetic, but it's better than it was before...

I also did most of my Christmas shopping today. I stayed under budget, and paid cash for everything. This is a good thing Any money leftover from the Christmas budget will go into the emergency fund.

[Red]

annethcz, 272/1000 sounds pretty good to me! I'm at $78/1000, and thrilled to be there!

Everyone is doing so well. This is the tough month, taking care of everyone's gifts and special foods, etc.

Ewwww. Tickets. I have a few that need taking care of.

Man, I'm so jealous of anyone with high speed internet or dsl!

[ShawnMarie]

Originally Posted by TattooedMama

So how do you keep yourself from judging people that are being "foolish" with their money?

This IS very hard to do... especially once you've learned your lesson and seen the light and made some progress.

If it is someone close to me, or someone who has been receptive to listening to how I'm making progress with my finances I give them a copy of TTM as a gift. Dave often puts them on sale for $10 on the website and they do make great gifts for those who would appreciate them. I can't tell you how many people have thanked me for the book.

If I do not know them well, or they think they are "special" enough that nobody else has ever gone through what they are going through, I just pretty much ignore them and share my knowledge by example. Bring lunch to work, offer a homecooked meal and a DVD at home instead of the movies, shop with coupons and share your savings etc etc etc right in front of them. So they can SEE it instead of you preaching about it.

Though for some people all you can do is silently pray they figure it out before they lose everything.

[~PurityLake~]

RED:
...and I'm at 30/1000 so congratulations to anyone who has ANY ef.

We have DSL, but it's still slow with page loading.
It's through my phone company, so it's a total of $42.90 for internet and home phone line.

[ReikiMommy07]

Hi ladies!

I'm new to MDC, but not new to DR. DH and I (correction: I!) have been working on the basic/baby emergency fund for some time... Anyway, we're at $329.87/1000.

Looking forward to getting to know all of you!

[ReikiMommy07]

Originally Posted by TattooedMama

So how do you keep yourself from judging people that are being "foolish" with their money?

I don't waste my time judging them, b/c that's just what it is... A waste of time and energy. I remember that no one tells me what to do with my money )and/or that I don't have to listen to them if they do) and also that I don't like people sticking their noses into my business, unless I ask them for their opinions. So I don't say anything. If it gets really bad and I find myself thinking judgements about them, I redirect myself by consciously thinking about something else. Yes, this is hard! But everyone's better off without the negative energy of judgement going around.

[DesireeH]

I would ignore the "wasters" too. We know people like that too, who continually screw themselves over and over and then whine about it and want you to feel sorry for them. It bugs me in the moment but eh....shrug it off and live your own life, yk? I just wont ever give them money. LOL If it comes time when someone who I feel wastes all the time needs help...I'll be showing up with groceries instead of cash. LOL

I think their are different types of people...people who DO/ACT and CHANGE their situation and aim higher....or the ones who wallow about how screwed they are while doing nothing...and I'm trying to be one of the DO/ACT people. But I've made mistakes too or I wouldnt be posting here at all. LOL!!! So i try to remember that too.

[Maggi315]

update, more questions

HI,
Update on us: We went to Yale and talked with a few doctors about my pituitary tumor, it turns out that size doesn't matter (hey, haven't we all been saying that, ). It's location, location, location. My endo up there told me I was very unfortunate because this tumor happens to be in a very bad place.

But back to the budget, that trip pretty much blew it, between that and christmas and all the medical bills, we are just going to get through this month and start the year fresh.

here's a few questions I have, maybe you can answer:

1. I'm still confused about the vontage thing. We need high speed internet because my daughter does charter school and does alot online like movies, videos, etc. Can I do all that with vontage?
2. Anyone get out of their cellphone contract? We have one year left but would love to switch and not pay the 150/phone charge they want us to pay.
3. what about upside down car loans? my husband has a car that we owe 17K on and is now worth 10-11K. Even if we sold it and took out a personal loan to cover the difference, we'd still need another loan to buy something to drive, so not sure how much money that would save since an older car has a higher rate. Anyone do something creative here that saved alot on monthly payments?
4. We're thinking of taking a medical forebearance on our second mortgage for 6 months, anyone do that? Did you get a negative report on credit? how bad did it affect it?

thanks, that's all for today, off to get kids to bed

[TattooedMama]

Barb, I'm sorry about your trip to the endo.
I don't have experience with Vonage so hopefully someone else will answer soon.
Thinking good thoughts for you and your family,
TM