Dumping Debt and Building Wealth with Dave Ramsey~ April - Page 14

[organic-momma]

I have been MIA for awhile now... my grandmother passed away so we have been dealing with some family issues with that. There was one good thing that came of it though and that is that I was able to pay off all of our debt except for our vehicle loan, WOW! What a feeling! The only thing is now that I am scared because I didn't have to work my way out of it, I don't know that we have really "learned our lesson" if that makes sense. I don't know that we are out of the "spend, spend, spend" mode. I made a new realistic budget though and we'll try to get gazelle about moving forward with the other baby steps

0-- Get current on bills DONE
1 -- $1,000 to start an Emergency Fund DONE
2 -- Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball - done except for $40K vehicle loan (because this is at 0% financing we are going to move ahead to step 3 first, and then come back to this step)
3 -- Three to six months of expenses in savings
4 -- Invest 15 percent of household income into Roth IRAs and pre-tax retirement - currently we are at 6% of DH's income (we pay in 3%, and then company matches 3%)
5 -- College funding for children
6 -- Pay off home early
7 -- Build wealth and give!

[pranamama]

hanging out , wondering if I should work more hours to speed things up, or wait for next school year.

[llamalluv]

Hurray, April!

BS1 1000/1000


BS2:
April 1st debt numbers:
Mastercard 1 $1699.36
Mastercard 2...4999.99 ***
Student Ln 1...3219.49
Student Ln 2...6919.87
Auto Loan.....11495.29
----------------------
Balance.......$28334.00


Written Budget:
Rent........$1025.00/1025.00
Electric.........24.68/56.00
Natural Gas.....0.00/12.29
Cell Phone.....[phone]
Internet........45.22/45.22 (comcast DOUBLED our bill to $90, so we've cancelled internet service. It will happen this week.)
Cable............55.80/41.74 (last month of cable! We canceled this yesterday! )
Auto Ins.......142.82/142.82
Charitable.....170.00*/170.00
Weight Watch..80.00/83.50
Car Payment..385.00/385.00
Mastercard 1...40.00/1000.00
Mastercard 2...80.00/0.00
Student Ln 1...50.00/50.00
Student Ln 2...50.00/50.00
Groceries......120.00/254.78
Dining/Ent......75.00/110.41
Gasoline.........40.00/52.01
Savings........200.00/200.00
Drug store............0/23.60
Pets....................0/8.10
Ent/Crafts............0/9.78
Health.................0/491.98
Clothing...............0/13.76
=========================
Total.........$2663.52/3045.74

Income: $2800/3991.73

*Edited since March 31st.

BS2:
April 1st debt numbers:
Mastercard 1 $499.82
Mastercard 2...5034.14 ***
Student Ln 1...3137.49
Student Ln 2...6893.48
Auto Loan.....11167.61
----------------------
Balance.......$26732.54

$1601.46 in debt paid off!


***This is the card that I ran up mostly at Starbucks when I was single, lonely, and STUPID. Only 1265 grande lattes to pay off.

[FeelingBlessed]

Snowball Progress

Still hanging out at the snowball; will be here for quite awhile. Here is a final look at April's snowball:

Since the official launch of our snowball on 2/15/08:

Snowball - Phase 1 (short-term): $3,514.75 PAID OFF

Snowball - Phase 2 (long-term - mortgages for 3 properties + grad school loan): $1,125.61 PAID OFF

TOTAL PAID OFF: $4,640.36

Snowball Goal for May: break the $7K mark (this is definitely a stretch, but I will be SO happy if we do it!)

Kim

[FeelingBlessed]

Originally Posted by organic-momma

I have been MIA for awhile now... my grandmother passed away so we have been dealing with some family issues with that.

I am sorry for the loss of your grandmother; hope your family issues are resolved quickly.

Kim

[Guinevere]

Hi everyone,

As it's almost the end of the month, thought I'd do a quick update on where we stand at the moment:

0-- Get current on bills DONE, although next month this may no longer be true. I have a $600 medical bill that we can't currently afford to pay in full. Hopefully, they will take payments. Thank goodness we've finally been able to turn off our heat and that preschool ends in May.
1 -- $1,000 to start an Emergency Fund DONE, and our EF is closer to 3 mos.' income b/c DH is self-employed and we needed a larger net. I suppose now that we're forced to rely almost solely on that net, I am grateful it's there.
2 -- Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball - We have 6700 to pay off at 0% interest; after a great start of snowballing $700 towards it, we have only been able to pay $150/mo. ever since. Given our current financial situation, I don't see that changing anytime soon.
3 -- Three to six months of expenses in savings Three months, but not separate from EF.
4 -- Invest 15 percent of household income into Roth IRAs and pre-tax retirement Can't afford this right now
5 -- College funding for children Being done through family contributions
6 -- Pay off home early Maybe someday
7 -- Build wealth and give! Maybe someday

I'm very down in the dumps today, I'm afraid. DH's business isn't making any money, we owe the IRS thousands of $ in taxes for said business (no tax incentive for us, let alone a rebate), AF is on her way (after yet another unsuccessful month TTC), and well, it's just a yucky day. Hoping for a brighter May, I could really use it!

Guin

[ripcurlgirl26]

Ha, I just read the entire book last night in one sitting. Talk about motivation!

0-- Get current on bills- always done
1 -- $1,000 to start an Emergency Fund- already done
2 -- Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball - working on now! We have our financed mattress ~$1,600 at 0% first, and our two credit cards at decent rates. My balance is just under $4k so we'll be hitting that second! The cars will come next but I'll be so happy just to get rid of the CC stuff.

[mumkenna&lucas]

I have been MIA too, just a lot going on and I have hit more bumps in the road of finances so my efund has dwindled as well Well at least there is something in it.. We will be putting our stimilus check towards our efund as well. Here is my new update for the start of May! My goal for May will be to fill up our efund (finally), pay off 2 hospital bills, and post here more!

Amanda (mumkenna&lucas) in CA
0-- Get current on bills DONE
1 -- $1,000 to start an Emergency Fund (75.62/1000) we are here!
2 -- Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball
3 -- Three to six months of expenses in savings
4 -- Invest 15 percent of household income into Roth IRAs and pre-tax retirement
5 -- College funding for children
6 -- Pay off home early
7 -- Build wealth and give! ---

[RoadWorkAhead]

Somebody remind me not to spend!

We're in much better shape these days, but its just getting spent. Its been a hard start to the PG which leads to lots more fast food, etc. but most of the spending is good spending like paying things for the year instead of by the month, etc. Just seems like we should be making more progress. I know the second check of may (the 8th) is all going to savings as is our Econ. stim. check so thats like....2300$ towards the EF, but still.

[bc1995]

Where is Jaime? I hope all is ok!

Kerri, sounds like you are still doing a good job of staying on track. We have times like you do of feeling like we are getting no where, but think about how much progress you will be able to make just 2 weeks from now.

Welcome, Nicole!

[lizziebits]

Alright, well, I guess April is just about over. Here is a recap of the month:

--We did pretty darn well sticking to the budget. We were over by $34.47, but I'm still pretty happy. And, barring someone holding a gun to our head and making us go to Chili's tonight, we will have succeeded in not eating out once during the month of April!

-- Our snowball is a little stalled as we are paying for my summer nursing classes. However, it feels really good to be paying for these courses in cash. We've paid $260 thus far, and I have another payment of $880 due May 14.

-- Some of our snowball money is tied up start up costs for my husband's landscaping business. He took a year off, and is basically starting the business up from scratch (he used to live in the next county over). Thankfully, landscaping has very little overhead once you have the machines!

So I feel good about the month. I think May will be even better though!

[TattooedMama]

Hey all just checking in... if Jaime is on hiatus I can start the thread for May...
Jessica

[phathui5]

Hey all,

Jaime is having trouble with a super slow internet connection. She asked me to do the thread for May, so here we go:

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=889208

[crazyeight]

well heres my May 1-15th budget:

Paid 1359.84
Mortg. 1055
Food 130
Directv 70 (any day now i should get my rebates applied )
Dh car pmt 270
gas 50 (SHOULD be alot less so it will probably go towards food)
water/sewer 58.40 (somehow last month got missed
eating out 40
auto savings 50
=-363.56
+550 2nd half month savings
+40 chase rewards payment
=226.44 kept in savings for snowball (and really the auto savings of 50 also so i have $275 to apply towards my car payment)

i went to my bank yesterday and applied $458 that had been piling up towards my car. the pay off "today" amount is $7876 after the 400 payment.

so our normal payment is 190
+50 (been adding that much all the time)
+100 (savings i can apply since our ef is full)
+275 (this is the very least i can add since bills will go down)
= extra 425/mo i hope! wow that looks really good on paper....

that means in approx 13 months it will be paid off. wooot!