Dumping Debt and Building Wealth with Dave Ramsey~ April - Page 7

[llamalluv]

Originally Posted by TattooedMama

I Cadbury mini eggs. They are one of my all time favorite candies.
But I have never met a candy I didn't like. :

What about root beer barrels? Those are the only kind I don't like. I even eat those Necco wafers that no one will admit to liking.....

[bc1995]

Rootbeer Barrels. Yum! I have a bit of a candy problem.

[bc1995]

Our second central air until went out tonight. (Ugh, I can't believe we already need to run it!) Looks like I may have to call the repair man. I have an undescribable peace knowing that I have our emergency fund in place, and it shouldn't be an issue to pay for the repair. (It will suck having to repay the emergency fund though!)

[RoadWorkAhead]

ARGH! Stupid me! I transferred our BEF plus the money for DH's bike into an ING account. I can't withdraw it until 4/17. WOuldn't you know I got hit by Bambi this AM? Bambi (Who didn't stay around to become my dinner...how rude!!) is going to cost me 250$ deductible (On a good note, I had just raised deductibles but apparently it doesn't go into affect until later this month!) and I don't have it in cash because its stuck in my ING account and DH doesn't get his first check til Thursday next (and has to mail it home). This means the pretty ) balance on my card is going to have to have an ugly 250$ added to it...I know its not for long, and this is why I have kept the cards until we've got padding in both our savings and our every day accounts, but darn it! I should have just left padding in now! Happily though, we can pay the deductible and they'll be fixing it on monday, and its basically drivable until then.

[Mama Rana]

Originally Posted by bc1995

I can eat a big bag of cadbury mini eggs in one day flat. The never last long around here. I am impressed you still have some left!

Originally Posted by TattooedMama

I Cadbury mini eggs. They are one of my all time favorite candies.
But I have never met a candy I didn't like. :

I have one bag in the freezer that I keep "stealing" eggs from, and another bag that I have a huge not on saying, "You can have these when you reach your [weight] goal!!!" Course, then I bought that other bag that's hiding in the freezer. Hard to reach my weight goal when I keep sneaking eggs, ykwim.

[Purple*Lotus]

I logged on to DH's credit card this morning to make sure my online payment and my paper check posted.. this is what greeted me..

Current Balance: $0.00
Minimum Payment: $0.00

Ah, it is officially official It's a good feeling

Chase card, beware! You are getting hit next paycheck, and it is going to be fierce!

[Purple*Lotus]

Dh and I had our monthly budget meeting the other night. Basically when he compliments me on my utter awesomeness for saving money and attacking debt He said I have really come a long way from 7 years ago when we met.

And I really have! I am an only child, soiled rotten, and I had that "Jaime see, Jaime WANT" syndrome I used to be embarassed that my car was a 1999 and not "new", etc. Now I love my old Chevy and I take pride in the fact that I own it, it gets me from point A to point B, and at least I have a car, some people don't even have a car. So I am blessed

I also used to pay $20 a month for text messaging : I sent so many texts that my phone company told me once "Ma'am, on your account, we stop tracking after you hit 3,000 for the month." :

I also used to go on these ridiculous $500 shopping sprees every 3 months : Mainly, in my defense, funded by my Mother. But when she stopped working, she stopped shopping. DH was horrified because he thought I would still want to go on these shopping trips. And I do. But then I met mothering.com

And for some reason, I opened a thread about Dave Ramsey. He was having a $10 book sale. So I bought one. I read it in a weekend.

And I feel so different now. I don't have cable, no internet *Jaime being online is made possible by her Father who thinks it is unnatural not to have internet so he bought us dial up as a gift * no cell phone *no texting, yikes*, no outrageous shopping trips, no "crap" that I HAD to have but then never used.

Now we get to be the freaks in the family, and I like it I can't wait to be out of debt. I want one of those bumper stickers that says "Debt is normal, be weird!"

But it gets easier. I know now that what I need and what I want are in two totally different catagories. And I am excited that our own future children, should we be lucky enough to have some, will not be as spoiled as I was growing up! I want my children to actually appreciate what they have and not have the "gimmies" like I used to have. I wonder sometimes how my DH even stayed with me, because he is so normal, so grounded as far as money goes, and I was always so selfish and wanted everything. It must have been my charm

[phathui5]

Originally Posted by ~*Jaime

I logged on to DH's credit card this morning to make sure my online payment and my paper check posted.. this is what greeted me..

Current Balance: $0.00
Minimum Payment: $0.00

Ah, it is officially official It's a good feeling

Chase card, beware! You are getting hit next paycheck, and it is going to be fierce!

Congratulations!!!

[mtm]

Well, I had to buy a new washer today. Luckily we have enough that we can pay for it but damn it would have been nice to keep that money for the snowball. We tried the repair route and the guy said washers just don't last much longer than the 8 years we've had it anymore. He did give us lots of good help picking out our new machine so that was good. Now I'm looking at my dishwasher and fridge suspiciously as they are the same age.

[kerc]

Originally Posted by mtm

Well, I had to buy a new washer today. Luckily we have enough that we can pay for it but damn it would have been nice to keep that money for the snowball.

The other appliances in my life last longer than my washer, hope that helps! But at least you had enough money to pay for the washer! My experience with the washer bit is that when we got a new one last fall our water bill went down by almost 35 dollars. a month. That's 20 months of savings to buy the front loader we bought. On water savings alone.

[Eaglevoice]

subbing

[Purple*Lotus]

Originally Posted by mtm

Well, I had to buy a new washer today. Luckily we have enough that we can pay for it but damn it would have been nice to keep that money for the snowball. We tried the repair route and the guy said washers just don't last much longer than the 8 years we've had it anymore. He did give us lots of good help picking out our new machine so that was good. Now I'm looking at my dishwasher and fridge suspiciously as they are the same age.

They just don't make them like they used to. My Mom has had her washer and dryer for 20 years, still works fine, no joke. My Dad bought DH and I a set when we got married in 2005, and already we have had two minor repairs on the washer and one on the dryer. It is insane.

I don't know how long other appliances last because we rent, so thankfully the fridge is the Landlord's problem

[bc1995]

Great post, Jaime!! So inspiring!

I just checked the balance in our ING BEF account. It is so exciting to see my $1000 has grown to $1027 since I opened it 6 weeks ago. ($25 of that was a new acct. bonus) I've never had any savings, much less watch it grow!

[shanetedissac]

Our April Budget

Finally getting around to typing this up here. I've had it posted at home since the day before the month began.

CHARITABLE GIFTS:
Local Public Radio station: 10
Adath Isreal (our shul): 4

SAVINGS:
Retirement Fund: 175
Bar Mitzva Fund: 100
Life Insurance: 34

HOUSING:
Mortgage: 771.72
Real Estate Tax: 630
Homeowners Ins.: 70
Umbrella Ins.: 27
House Repair: 23.67

UTILITIES:
Electricity: 91.39
House Oil: 250
Phone: 87.81
Trash: 8
Computer: 51.41

FOOD:
Groceries: 380
Dining Out: 0

TRANSPORTATION:
Gas: 240
Repairs: 0
Insurance: 176

CLOTHING:
None this month

MEDICAL/HEALTH:
Drugs: 0
Dr. : 20
Optomestrist: 0
Pets: 60

PERSONAL:
Toiletries: 0
Hair Care: 0
Education: 0
School Supplies: 0
Subscriptions: 8
Gifts: 0
Blow $$: 0
Accountant for Tax return: 300

RECREATIONS:
None this month

Total household income: 3518

We had to remove a bunch this month to pay the accountant. I try to have my budget listed in our priority order. I moved our life insurance towards the top for this reason.

Be well,

[phathui5]

Is your tax return complicated or is that the going rate in your area? We only paid $150.

[Killick]

You know, I hadn't thought of putting the emergency fund in an account like ING. That is way to make the money grow, for sure.

We just found out that we are likely to get 1200 back from cancelling the extended warranty on the vehicle we just traded in. Very cool.

So, I have decided to switch the order up a bit. I know this isn't seriously sticking to the babysteps, but we have a second mortgage of 33K that is fixed interest rate, but has a balloon at 15 years. I would refi, but these days, not so much. Anyway, the cars will get paid off, they have a set term, ect. We are going to do the second mortgage before the cars. I just feel more secure with that going away.

[shanetedissac]

Originally Posted by phathui5

Is your tax return complicated or is that the going rate in your area? We only paid $150.

Our return is not simple. I would have to say that it is a good rate for what we need. We have paid H&R Block over $400 some years. I like using a private accountant. I'd do it myself but just freaks me out with the different stuff we have to deal with.

Be well,

[Purple*Lotus]

Originally Posted by bc1995

Great post, Jaime!! So inspiring!

I just checked the balance in our ING BEF account. It is so exciting to see my $1000 has grown to $1027 since I opened it 6 weeks ago. ($25 of that was a new acct. bonus) I've never had any savings, much less watch it grow!

That is awesome!!

DH still does our taxes himself because we don't really own anything, so it is really easy.

[crazyeight]

those of you trying to cut down your cell bill i wanted to let you know that i have sprint sero (sprint.com/sero) and its $30/mo for 500 minutes, n&w at 7 p.m., unlimited mobile to mobile, unlimited text to anyone, and unlimited web, nationwide roaming ...and all the normal stuff (voicemail etc). although we are only saving about $20 a month for switching but we gained 300 extra minutes, unlimted text and web so its worth it!

[JackieR]

For those of you working on the snowball...

...please contact me by P.M. I have an idea I'd like to share that isn't board appropriate.

Jackie

PS - This weekend I netted $169 from my garage sale! TanyaS rocked it too with a net of $191, if I remember correctly. We wheeled and dealed like the best of them!