Normally I wouldn't come right out and just blab out the exact amounts, but I feel like I should in order for me to really get my point across.
Both of my sisters have taken Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University course. In October Matt and I began our class. It's a 13 week long class that is super easy to follow. We "graduated" in mid December from FPU. Most of what Dave has to say is stuff our parent's told us or we've heard before but he has a way of putting it in terms that can make most anyone understand it. In addition to giving you a debt gameplan, he also goes into the different options available to you when investing your money. This was super helpful to me because I had no idea where I was supposed to be putting my money (not that we had an excess of money to put away, but we will one day).
As I said in my Resolutions post earlier this month, one of our goals for this year is to pay off our credit card debt and Matt's truck. I just paid $3200 on our Discover card today. I'll be honest, most of that money came from my egg donation, but the point is...it doesn't matter where the money comes from (as long as it's legal IMO), we're paying off our DEBT with it. It also helps that January has 3 paychecks this month! We have $172 on the Discover card to pay off and a little over $100 on the Old Navy card (thanks to their on line clearance sales and swim suit season approaching, but Caedmon is already taken care of for next winter).
We've also learned that due to Matt's new schedule we'll no longer be paying $400/month in childcare. After February 9, we'll no longer need our Thursday and Friday sitter on a regular basis. My mother in law will be watching the kids 5 full days a month and 5 half days a month at no charge to us. We're forever grateful for her generosity and it's great knowing that our little ones are in great hands.
So the total amount we'll be saving each month (after February) will be close to $650 a month. Instead of blowing that money or stashing it away, we'll roll that money over to Matt's truck payment so that we can pay it off earlier (hopefully be the end of 2009 - and right now I don't see that being a problem).
The reason I've told you all this, some friends and some complete strangers, is to encourage you to do the same. Pay off your debt! I used to experience so much anxiety around the 1st and 15th of the month when it was time to pay bills, but now we control our finances and we don't let our finances control us.
Both of my sisters have taken Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University course. In October Matt and I began our class. It's a 13 week long class that is super easy to follow. We "graduated" in mid December from FPU. Most of what Dave has to say is stuff our parent's told us or we've heard before but he has a way of putting it in terms that can make most anyone understand it. In addition to giving you a debt gameplan, he also goes into the different options available to you when investing your money. This was super helpful to me because I had no idea where I was supposed to be putting my money (not that we had an excess of money to put away, but we will one day).
As I said in my Resolutions post earlier this month, one of our goals for this year is to pay off our credit card debt and Matt's truck. I just paid $3200 on our Discover card today. I'll be honest, most of that money came from my egg donation, but the point is...it doesn't matter where the money comes from (as long as it's legal IMO), we're paying off our DEBT with it. It also helps that January has 3 paychecks this month! We have $172 on the Discover card to pay off and a little over $100 on the Old Navy card (thanks to their on line clearance sales and swim suit season approaching, but Caedmon is already taken care of for next winter).
We've also learned that due to Matt's new schedule we'll no longer be paying $400/month in childcare. After February 9, we'll no longer need our Thursday and Friday sitter on a regular basis. My mother in law will be watching the kids 5 full days a month and 5 half days a month at no charge to us. We're forever grateful for her generosity and it's great knowing that our little ones are in great hands.
So the total amount we'll be saving each month (after February) will be close to $650 a month. Instead of blowing that money or stashing it away, we'll roll that money over to Matt's truck payment so that we can pay it off earlier (hopefully be the end of 2009 - and right now I don't see that being a problem).
The reason I've told you all this, some friends and some complete strangers, is to encourage you to do the same. Pay off your debt! I used to experience so much anxiety around the 1st and 15th of the month when it was time to pay bills, but now we control our finances and we don't let our finances control us.
P.S. Also by going to a CASH ONLY spending budget, it helped us to "stop the bleeding" so to speak. Each Friday I'll take out the exact amount of cash we'll need for the next week (groceries $100, gas $40/each, "blow" money, aka spending money, $20/each, childcare $100, offering $20, and if there is something else that we know we'll need - say an oil change or a dr appt- we'll calculate that into what we get out).
It's much harder to spend your last few dollars than it is to swipe a debit card that you know has overdraft protection!
1 comment:
I totally agree with you. We didn't do the actually FPU, but we listen to him constantly and I've read his book. Since May, we've paid off a substantial amount of debt. Our goal is to be completely debt free by December 2009, which should be relatively easy since we're still renting since selling our house! Good luck! I know we feel much better paying our bills now that there's a budget! As Dave Ramsey says, tell your money where to go instead of it telling you!
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