Dumping Debt and Building Wealth with Dave Ramsey- July - Page 4

[shanetedissac]

Originally Posted by mamimapster

I feel really uncomfortable with having money in envelopes around the house, so we haven't gone there yet-is anyone else here urban and subs something for the cash envelopes? paper slips?reciepts?

We use the envelopes for most of our spending and saving. We use online for: Mortgage, electric, phone, computer. These are all auto draft.

We save in enveloples and pay when due: Car and house insurance.

We have a total of 33 enveloped in our envelope basket We probably have over $2000 in all those envelopes.

We live in a suburbs. We love our envelopes. We barely use the debit card. Mark carries the only one we have. We use it for gas only when purchased at costco (they don't take cash) we only go there very infrequetly. We would not do otherwise.

for example: Mark and the kids stopped by the store today to visit me (at work). I work in a grocery store. The boys wanted to buy sometype of food item. It was so easy to say, "sorry we don't have the food envelope". So, no buying of anything. could have been a different story if we did not use the envelopes and needed to keep track of how much money is left in the food budget. I don't have to keep track of that. When the cash is gone, well, it is gone.

Works great for us.

[phathui5]

Originally Posted by whiddle

BS1 Done
BS2 0/75,000 (Both) Student Loan (deferred) start making 1500.00 payments next month
BS3 2600/6000
BS4 Done
BS5 N/A
BS6 0/36,000 (haven't closed yet)
BS7 MO Land 953.67/23,900

We slipped a little this month and had to spend out of our general savings fund. We are closing on our condo and have to pay for some upgrades (flooring, paint, bathroom fixtures).

I'm wondering if you're out of order here? It looks like you have something about land in BS7, which happens after steps 1-6 are done. Part of step 3 done and Done marked for step 4 (which comes after 2 and 3).

[Aufilia]

We use cash envelopes for eating out, groceries, blow money, and clothing, because those are our biggest problem areas. I hear DR talk about using envelopes for stuff like gas, but it's not practical to force yourself to pay inside with a kid in the car -- anyhow, I mostly take the bus and we just don't drive all that much anyhow, so gas isn't a budget problem area for us.

We pay most of our bills online and have a two-checking-account system we've been using for awhile, one for fairly predictable/averagable bills like the mortgage, insurance, 529, and utilities which is set up to mostly operate itself automatically, and one for everything else. We have a savings account attached to each checking account into which we put any 'spare' money, and we have some sub-savings accounts for sinking funds.

On a side note, has anybody else tried Mint.com? I'm really liking the transaction review feature though I haven't done much with budgeting yet (don't have enough data history).

[Tradd]

Originally Posted by Mommy&Will

Here is a sample of the wallet system that I have. I actually bought it for $10 at a Dave Ramsey LIVE event. He has all (or at least most) his stuff discounted at the event.
http://www.daveramsey.com/shop/Delux...em_P171C76.cfm

I had a one year subscription to his website last year and got the free TMMO book and the wallet system. It REEKED - I'm sensitive to plastic smells and it STANK to high heaven. Plus, it was a PITA to use and didn't even fit in my small purse. BLECH! I threw it out.

[Mommy&Will]

Originally Posted by Tradd

I had a one year subscription to his website last year and got the free TMMO book and the wallet system. It REEKED - I'm sensitive to plastic smells and it STANK to high heaven. Plus, it was a PITA to use and didn't even fit in my small purse. BLECH! I threw it out.

Lol. It totally reeks something awful. At least the black one, which is their "designer" one, whatever that means. The brown one that came in the FPU package I have doesn't smell though.

Other than that stinkiness of the black one though I really like it.

[p1gg1e]

Originally Posted by Mommy&Will

Lol. It totally reeks something awful. At least the black one, which is their "designer" one, whatever that means. The brown one that came in the FPU package I have doesn't smell though.

Other than that stinkiness of the black one though I really like it.

I bet you could sew a system really easy...out of non stinky fabric

[mamimapster]

aarrugh. I just found out that even our expedited adoption is going to cost 2,000. It makes me crazy that we have to jump through all of these hoops

At least we've been building our emergency fund, and won't have to do a homestudy/social worker visit like we had to last time.

[Jilian]

I'm sorry mamimapster. But congrats on your upcoming adoption, I'll bet that is really exciting!

We paid off my first student loan today and it was a good feeling! So now we're gonna snowball and work towards paying off our cc either this month or next month Its exciting to finally feel like we're making progress.

[smokeylo]

I found a great budgeting website that's very affordable ($3/mo) and based on the envelope system.

pearbudget.com

I just set it up, it's pretty awesome!

[phathui5]

:

Congratulations on paying off that student loan, Jilian!

[mamimapster]

Originally Posted by Jilian

I'm sorry mamimapster. But congrats on your upcoming adoption, I'll bet that is really exciting!

I'm very glad that we live in one of the 17 states where my Dc can have two legal parents, but it's sometimes hard to wrap my head around the fact that we have to adopt the child I'm giving birth to. I'm actually going to call another lawyer that I have a long standing relationship with, and see if there is a way we can negotiate some of the fees. The lawyer we have the quote from specialises in stepparent/2nd parent adoptions which is why we called her first.
On a happy note-a friend borrowed me TMM and I'm enjoying reading it quite a bit!

[Mommy&Will]

QOTW: Do you have your WILL in place? Are your loved ones taken care of should something happen to you tomorrow?

[mamimapster]

Originally Posted by Mommy&Will

QOTW: Do you have your WILL in place? Are your loved ones taken care of should something happen to you tomorrow?

See above post. We have: Medical power of attorney,financial power of attorney, Domestic partnership (Religious wedding contract),wills (will need to update slightly for Dc2),will have guardianship for dc 2 24hours after birth, and adoption asap-we also have named guardians/succesor guardians. I KNOW what happens when someone dies without paperwork for their Dc from very sad experience

[cheerma]

Originally Posted by Mommy&Will

QOTW: Do you have your WILL in place? Are your loved ones taken care of should something happen to you tomorrow?

Gosh, no! We need to get on that. DH is much older than me. We've talked about what we want but it's time to get it all legal.

[whiddle]

Originally Posted by Mommy&Will

QOTW: Do you have your WILL in place? Are your loved ones taken care of should something happen to you tomorrow?

No. We don't have a will but it's just me and DH and everything is set up to go to the other upon death. If we die at the same time, we are not remotely prepared.

We are closing on our condo on Monday so we will go and make an appointment with our atty after that to create a will. We have our healthcare papers though (living will, healthcare surrogate and power of atty) though.

[Mommy&Will]

Originally Posted by mamimapster

See above post. We have: Medical power of attorney,financial power of attorney, Domestic partnership (Religious wedding contract),wills (will need to update slightly for Dc2),will have guardianship for dc 2 24hours after birth, and adoption asap-we also have named guardians/succesor guardians. I KNOW what happens when someone dies without paperwork for their Dc from very sad experience

That is so awesome to be prepared. Have you heard Dave Ramsey talk about the "Love Drawer?" Its making sure you have set up a file in your home where your loved ones can find everything they need if you were to die tomorrow. So any wills, insurance policies, financial or health papers, keepsakes, perhaps letters that you've written to loved ones, etc.

I need to get all my stuff organized into one spot still.

Cheerma - we used US Legal Forms - the web site Dave Ramsey recommends. It was very quick, and cheap (I think it was $30 for both dh and I to have a state-specific will). It at least gets the basics in place for us - and I ordered the forms faster than driving thru the Starbucks drive-thru. lol. : )

http://www.uslegalforms.com/dave/?auslf=daveramsey

Its a GREAT boost to the ego to accomplish this while you continue to hack away at your debt snowball. Its easy to do and soooo important at the same time.

[Mommy&Will]

Originally Posted by whiddle

No. We don't have a will but it's just me and DH and everything is set up to go to the other upon death.

I believe that even though you have set everything up to go to each other upon death, that if you don't have it in your will, it will still end up in probate.

Congrats on your new condo - very exciting!

[whiddle]

Originally Posted by Mommy&Will

I believe that even though you have set everything up to go to each other upon death, that if you don't have it in your will, it will still end up in probate.

Congrats on your new condo - very exciting!

Thanks. We are going to get our will done probably next week.

I think it wouldn't go through probate because we are joint owners (with right of survivorship) on all of our assets. Maybe the retirement plans would have to probate though...not sure.

[Jilian]

Originally Posted by Mommy&Will

http://www.uslegalforms.com/dave/?auslf=daveramsey

.

Thanks so much for that link, that was the kick that DH and I needed to finally get this done. I have a question: do we need to order two, one for DH and one for me? Or does one cover both of us? I'm going to order tomorrow!

[Mommy&Will]

Originally Posted by Jilian

Thanks so much for that link, that was the kick that DH and I needed to finally get this done. I have a question: do we need to order two, one for DH and one for me? Or does one cover both of us? I'm going to order tomorrow!

You will both need a will. I just checked the site again and they cost $15 each, or you can get the package of a Last Wil, Living Will and Power of Attorney for $30 each. There is mp3 audio of Dave explaining the packages on the site.