Dumping Debt and Building Wealth with Dave Ramsey~ FEBRUARY - Page 2

[Girl In The Fire]

APBTLuv in
BS#0 -
BS#1 - done
BS#2 - In progress

I am back on BS #2 temporarily, our car needed some repairs which cost $300. It will be replenished with the next pay check in 2 weeks.

How is everyone doing on their budgets? We need to get a better idea of how much and where our money goes and I will be keeping track of every penny spent for the next few months. We did make up a mock up budget, we haven't followed it to a "T" but we cut our mindless spending significantly.

[shanetedissac]

We finished up the budget last night. This was the first time in many months that we had to take out of the budget after adding up everything.

OK I'm being distracted by dh........

[DandeCobb]

working on my budget, going thru this months and last 2 months bills trying to get a range for usual amounts. but holy batwings! our cell bill was $230 this month!!!!!!!!!! i haven't had a minute to look it over, which will take me forever because i think all cell phone bills are written in sanskrit, i am hoping it is some sort of mistake. (BTW, our cells are our only phones, we haven't had home phones in 3 months)

[Purple*Lotus]

Originally Posted by artparent

well, we sold our car! bikes and the car co-op now, so we should save some $.

my partner started a great new job , and will get paid in two weeks...it is all contract, so hard to predict, but hopefully in a good way! however, the transition from one job to the next has left us drawing on the emergency fund, some other savings, and credit

however, it may that our extended health benefits are going to be better and cheaper! and possibly all covered by his employer who will be covering lots of work expenses, particularly travel, which have been really dragging us down. i'm very excited!

so, back to step #1, and hoping to pay down the credit at high speed!

*

Good luck, keep going!

Originally Posted by wendizbaby

Thanks Jaime for all of the updates! We are going to tackle BS3 this month and really get it going. I'm skipping to that step since my job is on the rocks, though I'm thinking I could have it until July. That will really help us get somewhere. I'm trying to sell a car I inherited this month and that will probably bring in about 5,000/10,000 that I want for savings. And we already have $1000, so only $4,000 to make after all of that. That seems very do-able while I still have a job. If we get that rebate, then we are definitely good to go!! Then on to BS2!!!
Hope you all have a wonderful month of savings/debt payoff/or investing!!

Wendi

Good luck selling the car

Originally Posted by Einley

Subbing again
I am now halfway through reading his Total Money Makeover book and we need to open a savings account to start saving!

Welcome!

Originally Posted by Galatea

Subbing. Getting another $500 (withdrew from classes I didn't need) to throw at the debt.

Awesome!!

Originally Posted by shanetedissac

Hi Jamie:

Thank you so much for taking over this month. Would you please remove 3.5 (saving for house down payment) from my list. It was never an issue for us.

When I had the time I would go put some bolding in peoples lists on steps that they had completed. To stand out a bit over the non finished steps. kwim?

Again, thanks!

Shane

Originally Posted by APBTLuv

I am back on BS #2 temporarily, our car needed some repairs which cost $300. It will be replenished with the next pay check in 2 weeks.

How is everyone doing on their budgets? We need to get a better idea of how much and where our money goes and I will be keeping track of every penny spent for the next few months. We did make up a mock up budget, we haven't followed it to a "T" but we cut our mindless spending significantly.

Right now we are just paying bills and getting bare minimums on groceries. Everything else has been cut out for the time being.

Originally Posted by DandeCobb

working on my budget, going thru this months and last 2 months bills trying to get a range for usual amounts. but holy batwings! our cell bill was $230 this month!!!!!!!!!! i haven't had a minute to look it over, which will take me forever because i think all cell phone bills are written in sanskrit, i am hoping it is some sort of mistake. (BTW, our cells are our only phones, we haven't had home phones in 3 months)

Wow! That is a lot! Did you use your phone outside of your calling area?

Well DH cancelled our cell phones tonight They will be off on the 15th. No more $90 bill a month!! YAY!!

[TanyaS]

Huge update for us!

We have jumped from BS0 to BS2 overnight! We got our tax return.

Today I put $1000 BEF into our credit union savings account. It's not directly linked to checking, but we can get it quickly in an emergency.

I also just paid off TWO credit cards with a total balance of $7018.65!!!!!

There is some money leftover to get all bills current. Dh and I had a huge discussion about his withholdings last month. His withholdings have changed and we are going to use the extra funds for our snowball. I'm excited to watch it grow!!! We will be here a while at BS2 unfortunately.

But I am still very excited about this, and am thankful to have you all for encouragement and inspiration.

[littleaugustbaby]

Hey everyone!

I just realized I haven't posted my progress:

0 - DONE
1 - EF $380/1000 (I only got paid for 1/2 the month of January, so I should be fully funded by the end of this month!)

[Galatea]

I am working 10 extra hours this week and so have an extra $100. Dh is doing 2 deliveries for $70 extra dollars. We can finally afford floor mats for the van. (Seems silly but the winter weather is really ruining the floor carpet and I don't want to keep trying to clean it.) Do you guys think it is silly?

[tannersmommy]

Originally Posted by TanyaS

Huge update for us!

We have jumped from BS0 to BS2 overnight! We got our tax return.

Today I put $1000 BEF into our credit union savings account. It's not directly linked to checking, but we can get it quickly in an emergency.

I also just paid off TWO credit cards with a total balance of $7018.65!!!!!

That is WONDERFUL! Congratulations - you are really on your way. What a huge jumpstart.

[TanyaS]

Originally Posted by Galatea

I am working 10 extra hours this week and so have an extra $100. Dh is doing 2 deliveries for $70 extra dollars. We can finally afford floor mats for the van. (Seems silly but the winter weather is really ruining the floor carpet and I don't want to keep trying to clean it.) Do you guys think it is silly?

If you are saving for a purchase, then I don't think it is silly. Do you both agree on the purchase? If so, then why not?

[shanetedissac]

Hi All:

Jamie would you change 4.5 to 3200/21000.

Oh, and on a side note how do you do multiple quotes in a single mesage. I've been wondering this for a while.

[koofie]

Originally Posted by shanetedissac

Oh, and on a side note how do you do multiple quotes in a single mesage. I've been wondering this for a while.

Press that button next to the quote button - with the + on it - for every quote that you need (it lights up red). For the last quote, press the regular quote button. On your post all of the quoted posts should appear.

HTH!

[Guinevere]

Hi everyone, Happy February!

I joined for the first time last month, so I'm still getting my bearings, but here is what's going on for us right now:

0-- Get current on bills -
Done. Always done.

1 -- $1,000 to start an Emergency Fund
Done

2 -- Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball
We'll be on this step for a while, I suspect. But it could be worse -- we only have one cc debt, around 7K, that is at 0% percent interest for a year, and we are able to pay $150/month on it right now. If I can successfully cut our budget in other areas, we can hopefully pay off even more every month. Or, if our former house sells this summer (cross all fingers and toes,) we will pay it off in full.

3 -- Three to six months of expenses in savings
We've got 2 months' worth of living expenses saved, but can't contribute anymore to savings right now. I asked last month about using our savings to pay off the cc, but since the cc debt is at 0% and the savings are earning around 5% and we can't afford to replace them anytime soon, I'm leaving them there for the time being. DH is self-employed, we've got a large, young family, and I homeschool half-time and have a child w/SN, making it very difficult for me to supplement our income. So having that cushion is important to us, in case DH's business is negatively affected by this upcoming recession.

4 -- Invest 15 percent of household income into Roth IRAs and pre-tax retirement
Can't do this yet, although we used to in previous years. Right now, we own two homes b/c our old house didn't sell and although it's rented, the overall cost of running two households is killing us. I did find some ancient savings bonds my grandmother gave me (about $900 worth) in my files the other day and am thinking about putting those into my Roth IRA as this year's contribution. Better than nothing, right?

5 -- College funding for children
Everyone has an education fund, including Sophie, who has a special needs trust, but it's mostly grandparents and aunts/uncles who contribute to them at the moment. Still, every little bit helps.

6 -- Pay off home early
I so can't wait to be here! Actually, right now I'd just settle for only owning ONE home, lol. Owning two homes may sound glamorous, but that hasn't been our experience at all!

7 -- Build wealth and give! --- Invest in mutual funds and real estate
I hope I live long enough to get to this point.

Guin

[phathui5]

6 -- Pay off home early
I so can't wait to be here! Actually, right now I'd just settle for only owning ONE home, lol. Owning two homes may sound glamorous, but that hasn't been our experience at all!

Step 6 doesn't say anything about owning more than one home. It's just paying off the house.

[Guinevere]

Yes, I'm aware of that, phathui5, but that will clearly never happen until we get down to paying off one house instead of two.

Guin

[TattooedMama]

Hey Guinevere,
I cashed some savings bonds a couple of month ago after we started TTMM. To follow the steps in the order suggested you should put that money on your snowball, towards your debt. I understand about the "storm on the horizon" and wanting to have your Step 3 (3-6 months of expenses saved) BEFORE finishing Step 2... paying off debt. My DP is self employed too and I am a SAHM.
But you should halt all other savings and contributions right now and sock it at the debt! It will TRULY add up and make a difference.
Best,
TM

[TattooedMama]

My update for the month... we went totally out of order last month and actually paid off a debt that wasn't even technically on our snowball. It was the last of the CC debt leftover from when I was enrolled in a consumer credit consolidation program several years ago. It was a CitiBank card and they essentially refused to work with the agency so I left it virtually untouched after paying the rest of my debt off with the assistance of the agency.
What a dark cloud has been lifted by just paying the stupid thing off. We did actually dip into the EF to do it, but we paid the debt off at the end of last month... $1800.
I think our EF is at $300 right now, but it will be replaced this month. Also our targeted debt this month is $800 left on a line of credit loan from our last homebirth.
That will leave us with car, SL's and mortgage. :
We also (DP and I) will have insurance again in February. We have gone without since I left my job in June '07. It's a high deductible plan with HSA. I'm excited.
Great job everyone... let's have a good month!

[phathui5]

Originally Posted by Guinevere

Yes, I'm aware of that, phathui5, but that will clearly never happen until we get down to paying off one house instead of two.

Guin

I didn't realize you had two houses. Why keep both?

[my2girlz]

Originally Posted by phathui5

I didn't realize you had two houses. Why keep both?

My 1st thought was she was trying to sell one of them and it's been on the market for a while. I don't know if this is the case, but I do know quite a few people who have been in this perdicament lately.

[Maggi315]

HI,
I sent my update to Jaime with my steps. I am still holding on to our $1000 fund, but it looks like it might have to go this month. On the plus side:

-got paid for a december birth that was due, yeah!
-have 3 people due right now, so will have income for february!
-we are working on our taxes and it looks like we will have a refund this year, double yeah!
-my teenager is getting a small refund and will be able to pay off the money she owes for car repairs (I will actually use this money for an 18th birthday party for her, shhhh)


My goals this month:
-first and foremost to not stress so much and worry and fight about bills!!!!
-to keep our food budget from going over!
-to seriously reduce our food waste, going out to eat
-to reduce running around on errands, forgotten stuff, etc. and thus save on gas
-to use up household stuff
-to spend some time this month on house projects that we already bought the supplies for (painting, wallpaper borders, decorating stuff)


What are everyone else's goals?

[koofie]

Our goal this month is to get our condo on the market and put an offer in on a house. A perfect situation would be to get an offer on the condo too!