I don't know what to write.
I could write about the semester being over this week and how I have been anticipating this summer break for weeks - anticipating the sheer amount time I'll have to do things to take care of the house, my family, and myself.
I could write about the students who didn't pass the class and are now scrambling to do extra work to pass - seriously? How about doing the homework that was assigned and actually passing a test? But I feel like I'm always griping about students, so no.
I could write about the Bay to Breakers coming up this Sunday, which I'll be walking for the 6th time, and how unprepared and old I feel. Ugh, I don't want to think about it!
I could write about the fact that I didn't lose any weight in the last year, but at least I maintained, so I should be comforted, right? Isn't that what people are supposed to say? "But at least you stayed the same. It could have been worse!" Yeah, I feel all sunshiney now, thanks.
Maybe I could write about what I really feel about my nephew being on a mission is a South American country with the goal of converting people to a religion that was started by a con man (I suppose you can guess how I feel about that).
I could write about my Mother's Day, but then I'd have to admit that it wasn't as good as I wish it had been. I saw Dark Shadows, and I went alone. (And that was the good part.)
What about books? I could list the start of my summer reading list. I'll tell you that it starts with Stephen King - is anyone really surprised?
I could write about couponing and how my lack of time hasn't allowed me time to do much shopping lately, but we're not lacking for anything because I have a small stockpile. Yes, small - I don't need $25,000 worth of stuff!
I could write about the trash TV I like to watch. Every once in a while it's fun to watch the paternity test results on the Maury Povich show. A woman had been on there NINE times for the same kid. Ouch.
Or I could write about paying off my student loan. It will be paid off in the next year - only about 10 years early. That's a great feeling. And paying it off will mean that we are debt free - no car payments, no student loans, no credit cards - absolutely no credit of any kind ever again. Amazing.
I could write about my offspring. A teenager and a toddler-going-on-teenager. It's a wonder that the gray hair is limited to only a few strands. The munchkin is not thrilled with the word "no" lately, so she's been a real treat to deal with. The teenager actually took out the trash cans last night without being asked. He even brough them in today without being asked. Wow!
I could write about Howard Stern on America's Got Talent. He's a nice change of pace from Piers Morgan, though he hits to buzzer faster than Piers did.
But I guess I won't write about any of those things, at least not tonight.
Showing posts with label debt-free. Show all posts
Showing posts with label debt-free. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Extreme Couponing - California Style
I am hooked on that Extreme Couponing show. I am amazed by what those shoppers can achieve at the checkout line. I am jealous of their 96% savings. I am flabbergasted by their $25,000 stockpiles. I am in awe of the time spent on couponing. You get the idea....
But I can't do what they do where I live. There is no longer a grocery store that double coupons, since Ralphs closed about 5 years ago. And we aren't allowed to do coupon stacking, the process by which a shopper can use multiple manufacturer coupons on one item to bring the price down, sometimes all the way to zero. So how extreme can I actually get?
Well... I can save almost half every time I go to the store. For me, for this area, I think that's pretty darn good. But it takes work, every week to keep it up. I go to 6 different stores almost every week, and the trick to being successful is knowing the "regular" price of the items we use all the time. There will never be a $25,000 stockpile in my garage, but I do stock up on what we use.
There are tricks to maximizing savings. Each Sunday, I clip coupons for items we use and things we might want to try. Then I go through the ads for the stores where I know I can get the best deals: CVS, Walgreen's, and Target (grocery store ads show up on Tuesday or Wednesday). I look for, again, only the things we use. I always try to match up sales with coupons. I also look for rewards that the stores give, so I can save money on the next trip. I had $5 in reward coupons from Walgreen's - Christian and I got our movie candy free! I do the same at Vons and Savemart - at those stores, I ONLY shop for sale items that I have coupons for; otherwise, they are just too expensive. And my final stop is Winco for everything else.
Winco rocks! Let me just put it to you this way: I save almost $3 a box on my Kashi cereal (and I buy 3 boxes at a time), almost $4 a bag on Christian's spicy chicken wings, and over $1 a gallon for milk. Just on those items alone, I save $20 by shopping at Winco every pay period. And that's just a small example of what I save there.
My mom taught me how to coupon when I was a kid. I've done it off and on for years, but this year we got serious, and I am getting a lot more out of our grocery budget. While I may not be able to save 96%, I am still proud of what I am able to do. Want to learn more about my methods? Message me on Facebook!
But I can't do what they do where I live. There is no longer a grocery store that double coupons, since Ralphs closed about 5 years ago. And we aren't allowed to do coupon stacking, the process by which a shopper can use multiple manufacturer coupons on one item to bring the price down, sometimes all the way to zero. So how extreme can I actually get?
Well... I can save almost half every time I go to the store. For me, for this area, I think that's pretty darn good. But it takes work, every week to keep it up. I go to 6 different stores almost every week, and the trick to being successful is knowing the "regular" price of the items we use all the time. There will never be a $25,000 stockpile in my garage, but I do stock up on what we use.
There are tricks to maximizing savings. Each Sunday, I clip coupons for items we use and things we might want to try. Then I go through the ads for the stores where I know I can get the best deals: CVS, Walgreen's, and Target (grocery store ads show up on Tuesday or Wednesday). I look for, again, only the things we use. I always try to match up sales with coupons. I also look for rewards that the stores give, so I can save money on the next trip. I had $5 in reward coupons from Walgreen's - Christian and I got our movie candy free! I do the same at Vons and Savemart - at those stores, I ONLY shop for sale items that I have coupons for; otherwise, they are just too expensive. And my final stop is Winco for everything else.
Winco rocks! Let me just put it to you this way: I save almost $3 a box on my Kashi cereal (and I buy 3 boxes at a time), almost $4 a bag on Christian's spicy chicken wings, and over $1 a gallon for milk. Just on those items alone, I save $20 by shopping at Winco every pay period. And that's just a small example of what I save there.
My mom taught me how to coupon when I was a kid. I've done it off and on for years, but this year we got serious, and I am getting a lot more out of our grocery budget. While I may not be able to save 96%, I am still proud of what I am able to do. Want to learn more about my methods? Message me on Facebook!
Thursday, April 14, 2011
One More Down... One To Go!
We paid off the SUV yesterday!!!!!
We paid the remaining balance of $3798.97 one year and 4 months early for a savings of almost $500 in interest!
I am so glad I found Dave Ramsey on the radio that day in 2009 - we have paid off half our debt so far. No, I won't tell you how much. Maybe when we're done, I'll shock you with the number.
We will now begin attacking my student loan (I still can't believe it equals half our debt, but it's true). We should have it completely paid off by April 2013. Only 2 more years to get completely out of debt (except for the house), and then the REAL fun will begin (saving, saving, saving, and investing!).
I highly recommend The Total Money Makeover
- it changed the way we think about money.
- it changed the way we think about money.Sunday, February 27, 2011
We did it! We did it!
It hasn't cleared the bank yet, but we authorized payment to the credit card for the remaining balance, which means we are almost half way through our debt and only have the SUV and my student loans left to pay off. Oh my gosh! I drew a black line through the credit card on our poster-sized budget on the kitchen wall. It's amazing to know that we will be able to nearly double the SUV payment for the next few months and then it will be paid off - about a year and a half early!
It's already nice knowing that the Honda is paid off, but when the Expedition gets paid off, it will be amazing. I can't even begin to describe how it feels to know that we won't have any car payments. Yeah, we have 10 year old vehicles, but they're ours. I can't fathom paying $300 or more a month just to have a new car. It's never been important to me to have the newest, coolest car. Plus, being my practical self, I just can't see paying for a new car that depreciates almost by half the minute I drive it off the lot. What a horrible waste of money that is. And, as evidenced by our journey to financial freedom, we don't waste money any more!
Ah, to be debt free..... We're nearly half way there in just 18 months. In another 18 months, I'll be posting, "We're Debt Free!"
It's already nice knowing that the Honda is paid off, but when the Expedition gets paid off, it will be amazing. I can't even begin to describe how it feels to know that we won't have any car payments. Yeah, we have 10 year old vehicles, but they're ours. I can't fathom paying $300 or more a month just to have a new car. It's never been important to me to have the newest, coolest car. Plus, being my practical self, I just can't see paying for a new car that depreciates almost by half the minute I drive it off the lot. What a horrible waste of money that is. And, as evidenced by our journey to financial freedom, we don't waste money any more!
Ah, to be debt free..... We're nearly half way there in just 18 months. In another 18 months, I'll be posting, "We're Debt Free!"
Friday, January 14, 2011
Financial journey continued...
It's been a long road on your journey to financial freedom following the plan laid out in Dave Ramsey's The Total Money Makeover, but we have made amazing progress since our start in September 2009. In that time, we've gone through some changes:
But that's okay because our outlook for 2010 is even better. I am still teaching a total of 5 classes at a time, which is considered full-time, though it's still between 2 schools. My salary is still a little lower than it was at the full-time job, but that's okay, too. We've learned a lot through Dave Ramsey's plan: we know where we can tighten our budget and still be financially fine. Howard's promotion (and the raise to go along with it) will give us some extra money each month to attack our debts. I could possibly be full time at the business school this year, which would give us another boost to get us closer to our goal, maybe faster than we have planned.
We are now down to a car payment, one credit card, and my student loans. Our plan is to knock out the credit card and the car payment in the next few months with our tax refund. We will start paying the student loan and our goal is to pay off the entire balance in one year to be debt free by March 2012. It is amazing to think that in just over a year we could be debt free other than the house and be ready to start on Baby Step 3 to fully fund our emergency fund of 3-6 months of expenses. I cannot imagine having a bank account with that much money sitting in it!
What I'm really excited about is getting to Baby Step 4, where we start funding our 401Ks again and start saving for retirement. Howard is a little nervous that aren't doing this now, but I believe in this plan we're on, and I know that in the long run, we will reach our money goals!
- Our wages returned to the full amount early 2010 (after a 10% pay cut in early 2009)
- Howard was given the only pay increase in the company at the end of 2009 (other than employees who were given held promotions from the year before)
- I went to 3/4 time at the full-time job in January 2010 and started teaching a class at the community college in the spring semester
- I left the 3/4 time job when my second class started in March 2010 (late start)
- I picked up 2 classes at a business school (April quarter)
- I taught 4 classes in the next 2 quarters (July and October quarters)
- I also taught an early morning class at the community college in the fall semester of 2010
- Howard got his anxiously awaited promotion at the end of 2010
But that's okay because our outlook for 2010 is even better. I am still teaching a total of 5 classes at a time, which is considered full-time, though it's still between 2 schools. My salary is still a little lower than it was at the full-time job, but that's okay, too. We've learned a lot through Dave Ramsey's plan: we know where we can tighten our budget and still be financially fine. Howard's promotion (and the raise to go along with it) will give us some extra money each month to attack our debts. I could possibly be full time at the business school this year, which would give us another boost to get us closer to our goal, maybe faster than we have planned.
We are now down to a car payment, one credit card, and my student loans. Our plan is to knock out the credit card and the car payment in the next few months with our tax refund. We will start paying the student loan and our goal is to pay off the entire balance in one year to be debt free by March 2012. It is amazing to think that in just over a year we could be debt free other than the house and be ready to start on Baby Step 3 to fully fund our emergency fund of 3-6 months of expenses. I cannot imagine having a bank account with that much money sitting in it!
What I'm really excited about is getting to Baby Step 4, where we start funding our 401Ks again and start saving for retirement. Howard is a little nervous that aren't doing this now, but I believe in this plan we're on, and I know that in the long run, we will reach our money goals!
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Welcome to 2011
It seems like a good day for a blog post, first day of the year and all that. I am ready for this new year. I don't know that there is any greatly profound reason why, it's just a feeling that this year is the year I get my shit together. There are always so many things I want to accomplish in any given year, and the end of the year comes around and I find that I haven't accomplished as many of them as I would have liked. Not that I feel like I have failed in any way, things change and those things that seemed so important at the beginning of the year no longer take precendence, and why worry about the things you cannot change, anyway? So in this first hour of the first day of 2011, I can see all the possibilities in what lies ahead in this year.
Some of 2011 is already planned, so there are fun times to look forward to. In May, I will walk/jog in my 5th Bay to Breakers in San Francisco. It has become a tradition since 2006, our first year. I missed 2007 because Spencer was due the day of the race. I probably should have gone anyway - she was 5 days late! In July, we're traveling to Minnesota with Mom to see where she grew up and learn more about her side of the family. We've never been there with her. We'll also have a reunion with my dad's side of the family and celebrate my oldest brother's 50th birthday. Can't wait for May and July to roll around!
And of course, there are the resolutions we're supposed to make every new year. I can never decide if I want to make them or not, and when I do, I make half-hearted resolutions that last about 2 weeks and then are forgotten in the daily grind. Perhaps if they weren't called resolutions it would make them last longer. Okay, goals then. I will set goals for myself instead. So what do I want to do? What do I want to see happen for myself in 2011? Let's take a look....
-- Complete the Bay to Breakers 12K in under 2 hours
-- Lose 20-25 pounds before the Bay to Breakers
-- Pay off the SUV and the last credit card
-- Pay down my student loans
-- Finish the work on the front yard
-- Plan better
-- Procrastinate less
-- Achieve a better work/life balance
-- Drink more water
-- Allow myself time to read
-- Walk, hike, and swim more
-- Blog more consistently
Welcome to 2011 - there sure is a lot to be done!
Some of 2011 is already planned, so there are fun times to look forward to. In May, I will walk/jog in my 5th Bay to Breakers in San Francisco. It has become a tradition since 2006, our first year. I missed 2007 because Spencer was due the day of the race. I probably should have gone anyway - she was 5 days late! In July, we're traveling to Minnesota with Mom to see where she grew up and learn more about her side of the family. We've never been there with her. We'll also have a reunion with my dad's side of the family and celebrate my oldest brother's 50th birthday. Can't wait for May and July to roll around!
And of course, there are the resolutions we're supposed to make every new year. I can never decide if I want to make them or not, and when I do, I make half-hearted resolutions that last about 2 weeks and then are forgotten in the daily grind. Perhaps if they weren't called resolutions it would make them last longer. Okay, goals then. I will set goals for myself instead. So what do I want to do? What do I want to see happen for myself in 2011? Let's take a look....
-- Complete the Bay to Breakers 12K in under 2 hours
-- Lose 20-25 pounds before the Bay to Breakers
-- Pay off the SUV and the last credit card
-- Pay down my student loans
-- Finish the work on the front yard
-- Plan better
-- Procrastinate less
-- Achieve a better work/life balance
-- Drink more water
-- Allow myself time to read
-- Walk, hike, and swim more
-- Blog more consistently
Welcome to 2011 - there sure is a lot to be done!
Monday, November 2, 2009
Our Journey to Financial Freedom and more...
Well, it's just like Dave says in the book - things are going great and then something happens. In our case, it's fortunately nothing bad, just a minor setback on our journey. Let's just say we're taking an unexpected Thanksgiving trip to Phoenix this year! It's actually really cool (other than the initial outlay of cash) that we're going to be doing something so completely different for the holidays. The only bummer is that Christian won't be with us - he'll be with his dad in Illinois (his dad is getting married that weekend).
The coolest thing about this trip is that we're only paying for the airfare and the rental car! Howard has been working out of town since August (5-6 days per week), and he's a Priority Club member at Holiday Inn. He has so many points saved up that we're able to get our hotel free for our trip (5 free days in a hotel - how nice is that on a travel budget?) and still have enough points left over and left to earn to possibly get free rooms in SF for Bay to Breakers in May!! Oh the paradox of Howard's out of town schedule - I hate that he's gone, but it has its perks. And for food, we've really hit the jackpot. We were given $50 in Chili's gift cards last year, Christian "cashed in" a $25 gift card at the Bank of Mom, we had a couple of Starbuck's gift cards from somewhere, and Howard got a $100 gift card as a safety bonus on this job he's on right now. I also cashed in points on MyPoints for another $70 in restaurant gift cards, so just about all of our food will be covered while we're travelling, too. You never realize how much the food costs when you travel and have to eat at a restaurant for every meal! This will definitely keep us on a tight budget.
So, our journey to financial freedom continues. Because we had to pay for the plane tickets in October, we wiped our emergency fund. Yes, I know travel is NOT an emergency on the plan, BUT we knew that we'd have it back at the beginning of this month. The other perk to Howard working so much over the past several months is that he gets a bonus for his billable time - I won't tell how much the bonus is, but I will say that it's been extremely helpful! And I get my check from teaching each month (OK so I make about $4 per hour when you consider all the time I spend prepping and grading, but still), which really helps for all the little expenses that seem to pop up every month (school pictures $54 - wtf?!?!).
We started our journey on September 1 and have paid off 4 of the smaller things we had hanging over our heads, including one car! Granted, the car only had 4 payments left when we started, but still - we made 4 payments in 2 months! Even with this unplanned vacation, we could still be on track to pay off the next credit card bill by the end of the year. And not only that, but we've gone completely credit card free since we started. I thought it would be a lot harder than it's been (again, that bonus has been a life saver), but we have really made an effort to change our charging ways! I don't even let Christian borrow his allowance anymore - no more credit from the Bank of Mom!
Even though we still have a long way to go, and it's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel, we can already see that first pinprick of light, and it's good!
The coolest thing about this trip is that we're only paying for the airfare and the rental car! Howard has been working out of town since August (5-6 days per week), and he's a Priority Club member at Holiday Inn. He has so many points saved up that we're able to get our hotel free for our trip (5 free days in a hotel - how nice is that on a travel budget?) and still have enough points left over and left to earn to possibly get free rooms in SF for Bay to Breakers in May!! Oh the paradox of Howard's out of town schedule - I hate that he's gone, but it has its perks. And for food, we've really hit the jackpot. We were given $50 in Chili's gift cards last year, Christian "cashed in" a $25 gift card at the Bank of Mom, we had a couple of Starbuck's gift cards from somewhere, and Howard got a $100 gift card as a safety bonus on this job he's on right now. I also cashed in points on MyPoints for another $70 in restaurant gift cards, so just about all of our food will be covered while we're travelling, too. You never realize how much the food costs when you travel and have to eat at a restaurant for every meal! This will definitely keep us on a tight budget.
So, our journey to financial freedom continues. Because we had to pay for the plane tickets in October, we wiped our emergency fund. Yes, I know travel is NOT an emergency on the plan, BUT we knew that we'd have it back at the beginning of this month. The other perk to Howard working so much over the past several months is that he gets a bonus for his billable time - I won't tell how much the bonus is, but I will say that it's been extremely helpful! And I get my check from teaching each month (OK so I make about $4 per hour when you consider all the time I spend prepping and grading, but still), which really helps for all the little expenses that seem to pop up every month (school pictures $54 - wtf?!?!).
We started our journey on September 1 and have paid off 4 of the smaller things we had hanging over our heads, including one car! Granted, the car only had 4 payments left when we started, but still - we made 4 payments in 2 months! Even with this unplanned vacation, we could still be on track to pay off the next credit card bill by the end of the year. And not only that, but we've gone completely credit card free since we started. I thought it would be a lot harder than it's been (again, that bonus has been a life saver), but we have really made an effort to change our charging ways! I don't even let Christian borrow his allowance anymore - no more credit from the Bank of Mom!
Even though we still have a long way to go, and it's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel, we can already see that first pinprick of light, and it's good!
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Our Journey to Financial Freedom
I came across "The Dave Ramsey Show" on the radio a couple months ago in a roundabout way. We had a cool station that played a fairly eclectic mix of music, but unfortunately it didn't last (as with all the cool stations). Of course, the channel remains preset in my car, and one day I was flipping through and hit the button, even though I knew it had changed to the FM version of the local conservative radio show. Obviously, this is not a station I would normally listen to. On this particular day, I hit the button out of habit and because there was nothing good on any of the other stations, I figured I would listen to what the conservatives were saying to get a good laugh. Well, interestingly enough, there was a guy talking about money. I like money, so I listened. He was pretty down-to-earth, and everything he talked about made sense. Not just, "Yeah that could work," but real common sense. I'm not usually in my car between 11am and 1pm, but after that day, if I was, I was listening to the money guy.
So fast forward a couple months. After listening to snippets of Dave Ramsey, I finally checked out his website, and Howard bought his book, "The Total Money Makeover" (TMMO) on Amazon for me. I devoured that book in about a day and a half so that Howard could take it and read it while he worked in the field. We talked about it every night that week! And when he came back, we made our plan and prepared for our journey to be debt-free! I won't go over Dave's book in detail, but I plan to record our progress in becoming financially free as we complete the Baby Steps in Dave's book.
Our official start date was September 1, 2009. We got our paychecks and started! This is a really good time for us to start - Howard has been getting a bonus (which will go through the end of this month) and we both received publication bonuses from work for an extra $500. Talk about a good start.
Baby Step #1 - Save $1000
I have been reading saving and debt reduction articles from a long time; like I said, I like money. So we had a small "emergency fund" of $600 already. Dave says $1000, so we're working on it. We wanted to make a start on Baby Step #2 right away, so we're taking care of #1 with our paycheck in the middle of the month. We will have our emergency fund started and can really get moving on the exciting stuff!
Baby Step #2 - Pay off all debts (other than the house)
So, this is the fun (and hard) part. We had 4 small bills that have just been hanging around and we just haven't been able "find" money to pay. So we knocked those out immediately and it felt so good to cross those off the list! We have two more things under $1000 to pay and will take care of those by October. Then we'll get the long haul of debt payment. We have 2 cars, 4 credit cards, and student loans for a grand total of about $65,000. How insane is that?
So Dave recommends paying off your bills from the lowest balance to the highest balance. Ok - that sounds good to me. I've paid off all my bills before, but I had used the system where you pay the bills from the highest interest rate first, then work your way through that way. I see Dave's point about going from lowest balance to highest. You get some quick results at the beginning to keep yourself motivated - that makes such a difference! I'm willing to give his sytem a chance.
Creating a Budget
This is one thing that we already had, but it just wasn't detailed enough. We had the main bills listed, but we didn't really plan for putting gas in the car or for miscellaneous expenses. We always just left some money over each paycheck, but we always used it up and then ended up charging gas or charging all that stuff we "needed" at Target. Not good. So Howard and I set up a new detailed budget where we account for every bit of money coming in each paycheck/month and know exactly where it's going to go before we even have our checks in our hands. We have money that we set aside each month for other expenses, like car repairs, car registration, household goods, or home repairs. It feels so freeing already! We use only cash (or a debit card) and all the credit cards are out of our wallets!
Next Steps
We had a great start out of the gate, but now we wait until our next paychecks. The next step is to finish the $1000 emergency fund and the pay off the next bill on the list. After that, we'll pay one car off 2 months early! The we really get serious to keep our momentum going to get those last bills paid. Goal date (debt-free except for house) = February 2012.
So fast forward a couple months. After listening to snippets of Dave Ramsey, I finally checked out his website, and Howard bought his book, "The Total Money Makeover" (TMMO) on Amazon for me. I devoured that book in about a day and a half so that Howard could take it and read it while he worked in the field. We talked about it every night that week! And when he came back, we made our plan and prepared for our journey to be debt-free! I won't go over Dave's book in detail, but I plan to record our progress in becoming financially free as we complete the Baby Steps in Dave's book.
Our official start date was September 1, 2009. We got our paychecks and started! This is a really good time for us to start - Howard has been getting a bonus (which will go through the end of this month) and we both received publication bonuses from work for an extra $500. Talk about a good start.
Baby Step #1 - Save $1000
I have been reading saving and debt reduction articles from a long time; like I said, I like money. So we had a small "emergency fund" of $600 already. Dave says $1000, so we're working on it. We wanted to make a start on Baby Step #2 right away, so we're taking care of #1 with our paycheck in the middle of the month. We will have our emergency fund started and can really get moving on the exciting stuff!
Baby Step #2 - Pay off all debts (other than the house)
So, this is the fun (and hard) part. We had 4 small bills that have just been hanging around and we just haven't been able "find" money to pay. So we knocked those out immediately and it felt so good to cross those off the list! We have two more things under $1000 to pay and will take care of those by October. Then we'll get the long haul of debt payment. We have 2 cars, 4 credit cards, and student loans for a grand total of about $65,000. How insane is that?
So Dave recommends paying off your bills from the lowest balance to the highest balance. Ok - that sounds good to me. I've paid off all my bills before, but I had used the system where you pay the bills from the highest interest rate first, then work your way through that way. I see Dave's point about going from lowest balance to highest. You get some quick results at the beginning to keep yourself motivated - that makes such a difference! I'm willing to give his sytem a chance.
Creating a Budget
This is one thing that we already had, but it just wasn't detailed enough. We had the main bills listed, but we didn't really plan for putting gas in the car or for miscellaneous expenses. We always just left some money over each paycheck, but we always used it up and then ended up charging gas or charging all that stuff we "needed" at Target. Not good. So Howard and I set up a new detailed budget where we account for every bit of money coming in each paycheck/month and know exactly where it's going to go before we even have our checks in our hands. We have money that we set aside each month for other expenses, like car repairs, car registration, household goods, or home repairs. It feels so freeing already! We use only cash (or a debit card) and all the credit cards are out of our wallets!
Next Steps
We had a great start out of the gate, but now we wait until our next paychecks. The next step is to finish the $1000 emergency fund and the pay off the next bill on the list. After that, we'll pay one car off 2 months early! The we really get serious to keep our momentum going to get those last bills paid. Goal date (debt-free except for house) = February 2012.
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