Well folks, it's been about a year since the last substantial update, and we have been extremely busy pushing through a multitude of problems. While we have paid down on all of our debt across the board, it feels like there hasn't been much movement (which is why the debt snowball is so psychologically awesome).
After plowing through our smaller debts last year, we were left with larger ones with long pay-down timelines. Over the past year, however, we have made great strides to reduce all of them, and now we're just about to the point of making huge gains and cascading payments through the debts once again. All I have to say is you really need to push through the pain and make this happen.
I think this is the point that most people throw up their hands and say "well, I tried, I can't make it work" and then give up -- going back to the way things used to be. If you can stay motivated, it is very much worth it to keep pushing. How does one do that you ask? Well, I tried to gamify paying down debt. I did it by making a spreadsheet and giving myself "achievements" for hitting certain levels of debt, and giving myself a nice carrot to run to after I made it through the sprint. What that carrot is will be different for everyone, but find something that motivates you and push for it.
Among the setbacks, most notably we have continued to have large medical expenses and our van was totaled. We had insurance, but the replacement value wasn't enough to get something in good shape, so we had to finance. The van is our primary vehicle, and it needs to be reliable. I'm driving a 15 year old Eclipse now, and we couldn't risk having two cars that may or may not work :).
Regardless of that, we have been able to recoup the car payment by adjusting lifestyle and budget -- so we have the liquid funds like we did before the accident. What pumps me up is that we will have even MORE liquid funds available after the van is paid off than before we bought it.
I'm excited to be able to actually post payoff goals here in the coming months, rather than sitting on my hands for year. Here's to a more productive 6 months!
Showing posts with label budget. Show all posts
Showing posts with label budget. Show all posts
Monday, July 8, 2013
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Still On Track
We are still on track with the plan I came up with at the beginning of the year. With that being said, we've paid off my car and are about to pay off another card by next week. It's awesome seeing these things dropping at an increased pace :).
The biggest thing that will get you on track and keep you on track is setting a budget. I know it's something that everyone says, but it seems like no one actually does it. We've split it into two types: recurring bills and snowball budget.
We start by taking all of our recurring monthly bills and have those subtracted off the top of any income we get for that month. This also includes taking money out for fun stuff (eating out, going to the movies, etc). After that is accounted for, we work on the "snowball budget". This budget is made up of extra money that doesn't have a home. If there isn't anything extra we need that month, then it all gets divided between various debts to knock them down/out. Just last month, there was some landscaping work I wanted to do, so that money came out of this extra slush fund. Sure, it slowed down my snowball, but we made the improvements with cash, and still payed extra on debt.
Making the time to sit down and work this out is super important, and it keeps both you and your spouse on the same page (and eliminates any arguments as well.. bonus). We are currently in the process of becoming foster parents as well, and planning out all of the expenses that go along with that has made climbing this mountain very achievable.
Speaking of fostering, we originally wanted to adopt but found the process way to expensive -- absurdly so (I mean, the kids need help. Why make it hard?). We found that by fostering to adopt, we can help kids in need AND have the option of adopting the ones that have been permanently separated from their parents by the state. The best part is the State basically pays for the adoption -- so it's a win-win for the foster kids AND us :).
The moral of the story is if you want your financial life organized, YOU have to be organized. Tell your money where to go -- don't wonder where it went at the end of the month. By doing so, you will be able to accomplish some pretty awesome things.
The biggest thing that will get you on track and keep you on track is setting a budget. I know it's something that everyone says, but it seems like no one actually does it. We've split it into two types: recurring bills and snowball budget.
We start by taking all of our recurring monthly bills and have those subtracted off the top of any income we get for that month. This also includes taking money out for fun stuff (eating out, going to the movies, etc). After that is accounted for, we work on the "snowball budget". This budget is made up of extra money that doesn't have a home. If there isn't anything extra we need that month, then it all gets divided between various debts to knock them down/out. Just last month, there was some landscaping work I wanted to do, so that money came out of this extra slush fund. Sure, it slowed down my snowball, but we made the improvements with cash, and still payed extra on debt.
Making the time to sit down and work this out is super important, and it keeps both you and your spouse on the same page (and eliminates any arguments as well.. bonus). We are currently in the process of becoming foster parents as well, and planning out all of the expenses that go along with that has made climbing this mountain very achievable.
Speaking of fostering, we originally wanted to adopt but found the process way to expensive -- absurdly so (I mean, the kids need help. Why make it hard?). We found that by fostering to adopt, we can help kids in need AND have the option of adopting the ones that have been permanently separated from their parents by the state. The best part is the State basically pays for the adoption -- so it's a win-win for the foster kids AND us :).
The moral of the story is if you want your financial life organized, YOU have to be organized. Tell your money where to go -- don't wonder where it went at the end of the month. By doing so, you will be able to accomplish some pretty awesome things.
Labels:
budget,
debt,
debt snowball
Friday, June 24, 2011
Help Comes From The Heart
First off, I just wanted to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who donated to our campaign. I feel very humbled by the fact that we were able to raise $5450, which had a massive impact on our financial situation.
The last few months have been busy with our noses to the grindstone. We were able to pay off Terra's van as planned, and made small strides despite some dental needs that came up. But, that all changes with the campaign :)
Now for the fun bits:
We were able to pay off three major medical debts and a few minor bills. In all, these bills represent $450/month of expense that is GONE. This gives us a HUGE amount of breathing room, and allowed me to pull Terra's check out of the budget so that it is finally extra money. This extra can go for extra snowball money or fun money without impacting the established get-out-of debt plan -- which makes me very happy :). Words cannot describe the relief I'm feeling at this point.
However, this isn't the best part. I recently discovered that Aetna is reprocessing all of our Vivaglobin claims as a pharmacy benefit instead of a major medical benefit. Translation? That means that instead of each dose costing $800 per kid per month (then subject to deductibles and 80/20), each dose is $65 flat. $65!! Since Aetna's pharmacy was one of the three major debts we paid off with the campaign, we will be getting approximately $1200-$1500 back from Aetna. THIS IS HUGE :)
I'll use this to pay off the remaining balances on some of the smaller bills and use the rest to continue walking up our debt snowball. Sure, our deductible will be replaced, but we are in a pretty good place now and that's ok :).
THANK YOU again to everyone who has donated and who has been praying for our family. You can still donate at From The Heart by specifying our family in the notes, OR you could go see what other great families are being sponsored and help meet their needs :).
The last few months have been busy with our noses to the grindstone. We were able to pay off Terra's van as planned, and made small strides despite some dental needs that came up. But, that all changes with the campaign :)
Now for the fun bits:
We were able to pay off three major medical debts and a few minor bills. In all, these bills represent $450/month of expense that is GONE. This gives us a HUGE amount of breathing room, and allowed me to pull Terra's check out of the budget so that it is finally extra money. This extra can go for extra snowball money or fun money without impacting the established get-out-of debt plan -- which makes me very happy :). Words cannot describe the relief I'm feeling at this point.
However, this isn't the best part. I recently discovered that Aetna is reprocessing all of our Vivaglobin claims as a pharmacy benefit instead of a major medical benefit. Translation? That means that instead of each dose costing $800 per kid per month (then subject to deductibles and 80/20), each dose is $65 flat. $65!! Since Aetna's pharmacy was one of the three major debts we paid off with the campaign, we will be getting approximately $1200-$1500 back from Aetna. THIS IS HUGE :)
I'll use this to pay off the remaining balances on some of the smaller bills and use the rest to continue walking up our debt snowball. Sure, our deductible will be replaced, but we are in a pretty good place now and that's ok :).
THANK YOU again to everyone who has donated and who has been praying for our family. You can still donate at From The Heart by specifying our family in the notes, OR you could go see what other great families are being sponsored and help meet their needs :).
Monday, April 26, 2010
Busy six months
It has been a busy six months in our household. I had canceled our credit cards and we were going without, we had a cash only Christmas, AND I was able to pay off two large debts. Lots of sacrifices were made to make this happen, bit it was all worth it. We sold a car and replaced it with a cheap cash-only alternative, canceled all extra utilities, didn't go out, didn't eat out, worked extra jobs and finally pulled through a big win. Granted, we still have a ways to go, but are in a much better position than we were six months ago.
The biggest lesson learned - FILE YOUR HOMESTEAD TAX EXEMPTION! I waited too long to do this and got burned by my mortgage payment for the last year. That, however, has changed and our new payment is $300 less than it was before, freeing up that much more in the budget for the debt snowball. It is probably good timing because of the ongoing medical treatments the girls will need, but with insurance hopefully covering everything, we should be in good shape.
The next thing on the radar is a couple small medical debts and the Van being paid off. I'll be sure to update this more frequently as we knock down more debts. It CAN be done people.. you just have to have discipline.
The biggest lesson learned - FILE YOUR HOMESTEAD TAX EXEMPTION! I waited too long to do this and got burned by my mortgage payment for the last year. That, however, has changed and our new payment is $300 less than it was before, freeing up that much more in the budget for the debt snowball. It is probably good timing because of the ongoing medical treatments the girls will need, but with insurance hopefully covering everything, we should be in good shape.
The next thing on the radar is a couple small medical debts and the Van being paid off. I'll be sure to update this more frequently as we knock down more debts. It CAN be done people.. you just have to have discipline.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Finances are Spooky
Ok, that was a lame attempt at Halloween humor, but things were a bit scary there for the last couple months. We had built up quite the backlog of medical bills, but I am glad to say that I was able to work out payment plans with ALL of the providers without having to incur any new debt to do so.
I also got some decent news over the last couple months -- the big one being getting a rather generous staged raise between now and January 1st. The first part of it was effective this month, and while I've only had two paychecks with the extra money, the effects are already starting to become apparent. In January, the next phase kicks in. This is awesome not only that it is extra money, but the total between my raises and all of the money that I've been able to free up by cutting lifestyle equates to about what our old house payment used to be :). The realization that you have managed to gain basically a mortgage payment is a very good one indeed.
With the payment plans I've got in place and the extra money coming in now, I've got a great outlook for how the rest of 2009 will go and how 2010 will turn out. I'm already starting to get panicked calls from creditors about my balances going away. I've got a 0% interest medical loan that I've just about paid off. When it got to be about 5 months away from being paid off, they have been calling me once a week with "good news" that I've got money available that they will gladly give me -- at 24% interest. No thanks :). By the way, making sure they only have my Google Voice number is awesome. It makes it easy to ignore them :).
I also got some decent news over the last couple months -- the big one being getting a rather generous staged raise between now and January 1st. The first part of it was effective this month, and while I've only had two paychecks with the extra money, the effects are already starting to become apparent. In January, the next phase kicks in. This is awesome not only that it is extra money, but the total between my raises and all of the money that I've been able to free up by cutting lifestyle equates to about what our old house payment used to be :). The realization that you have managed to gain basically a mortgage payment is a very good one indeed.
With the payment plans I've got in place and the extra money coming in now, I've got a great outlook for how the rest of 2009 will go and how 2010 will turn out. I'm already starting to get panicked calls from creditors about my balances going away. I've got a 0% interest medical loan that I've just about paid off. When it got to be about 5 months away from being paid off, they have been calling me once a week with "good news" that I've got money available that they will gladly give me -- at 24% interest. No thanks :). By the way, making sure they only have my Google Voice number is awesome. It makes it easy to ignore them :).
Friday, July 24, 2009
Bills Are From Mythology
I swear, bills are really a new form of Hydra. You cut one head off, and three more grow up in its place. Things have been rather interesting around here lately :).
First off, I'm driving the Grand Am as my daily driver (finally), and am getting ready to prep the Vibe for sale. I've even managed to pay off one of the many medical bills we had laying around. The downside, however is that I've incurred about twice what that one was (on another payment plan), and will be having to pay for a MRI soon. THEN, the Max (one of our dogs), began trying to scratch his brain out of his cheek, so we had to take him to the vet. Some shaving, treatment, antibiotics, lamp shade, and $160 later, he's all better. Poor guy, he looked so pitiful for the first day :).
The icing on the cake is the wonder that is increasing property taxes. Due to the recent changes around here, our house payment is going to go up about $200 -- effectively undoing some of what I've been driving toward with freeing up cash flow. If I can sell the vibe and use the proceeds to pay off another medical loan, then I'll be back up $300 a month. With the Van edging in on the $3000 mark, it should be one of the next things to go. Speaking of the Van, I had to get some work done on it which cost a bit. The good news is that I got the Tires for Life deal on it when I bought it, so I'll be getting a new set of tires here soon. The bad news is that to keep the deal, I've got to get it aligned (understandable), which will run about $150. :)
I did get a letter in the mail today from a Pontiac dealer, however. They are looking for Vibes (I guess people have been asking for them). Since they know I have one, they are offering to buy it because they are low on inventory. They're also offering more than what I owe on it, and I could possibly get more out of them -- so that is kind of cool. It would be nice to be able to sell it and get pretty close to what I want without the hassle of actually having to deal with people :).
Anyhow, I'm off for now. The next update will probably be what happens with the car. Stay tuned :)
First off, I'm driving the Grand Am as my daily driver (finally), and am getting ready to prep the Vibe for sale. I've even managed to pay off one of the many medical bills we had laying around. The downside, however is that I've incurred about twice what that one was (on another payment plan), and will be having to pay for a MRI soon. THEN, the Max (one of our dogs), began trying to scratch his brain out of his cheek, so we had to take him to the vet. Some shaving, treatment, antibiotics, lamp shade, and $160 later, he's all better. Poor guy, he looked so pitiful for the first day :).
The icing on the cake is the wonder that is increasing property taxes. Due to the recent changes around here, our house payment is going to go up about $200 -- effectively undoing some of what I've been driving toward with freeing up cash flow. If I can sell the vibe and use the proceeds to pay off another medical loan, then I'll be back up $300 a month. With the Van edging in on the $3000 mark, it should be one of the next things to go. Speaking of the Van, I had to get some work done on it which cost a bit. The good news is that I got the Tires for Life deal on it when I bought it, so I'll be getting a new set of tires here soon. The bad news is that to keep the deal, I've got to get it aligned (understandable), which will run about $150. :)
I did get a letter in the mail today from a Pontiac dealer, however. They are looking for Vibes (I guess people have been asking for them). Since they know I have one, they are offering to buy it because they are low on inventory. They're also offering more than what I owe on it, and I could possibly get more out of them -- so that is kind of cool. It would be nice to be able to sell it and get pretty close to what I want without the hassle of actually having to deal with people :).
Anyhow, I'm off for now. The next update will probably be what happens with the car. Stay tuned :)
Labels:
budget,
car,
medical bills
Monday, April 20, 2009
Ode to Being Busy
I apologize if I haven't been keeping up with this as much as I should, but I've actually been busy with a lot of side work to pay for the mess I'm about to describe.
A few posts back, I mentioned getting an 18 month loan at 0% for some medical expenses we've racked up at a local hospital. Well, as of right now, I've paid off just about $1000 of that bill, and have about another $1000 in forthcoming expenses. I've actually been trying to pay the loan and the extra bills in tandem, but I just can't afford to do that anymore. I'm going to try to see if I can increase the credit line a bit and tack the new ones onto my previous loan. It shouldn't raise the monthly bill TOO much, but it will still be very close on the budget. Here's to hoping nothing catastrophic happens (yes, my emergency fund is depleted now too...).
My Father-in-Law wants us to go to Texas for Christmas and is hounding us to figure out if we're coming or not, but the way things look, I don't think we can go -- and all for the sake of money. I'd basically have to start saving what I'm paying in medical bills now to have the cash to go, but since we have the bills and the budget is too tight with them, I'm not sure how that is going to happen. To anyone out there reading this who don't have debt, DON'T GET ANY. Or if you have to, keep it under 25% of your gross. When you lose one person working, it really taxes things. I went from having a few hundred extra a month to put toward debt to going in the red every month. Not a fun place to be.
Looks like I've got a lot more side work ahead of me...
A few posts back, I mentioned getting an 18 month loan at 0% for some medical expenses we've racked up at a local hospital. Well, as of right now, I've paid off just about $1000 of that bill, and have about another $1000 in forthcoming expenses. I've actually been trying to pay the loan and the extra bills in tandem, but I just can't afford to do that anymore. I'm going to try to see if I can increase the credit line a bit and tack the new ones onto my previous loan. It shouldn't raise the monthly bill TOO much, but it will still be very close on the budget. Here's to hoping nothing catastrophic happens (yes, my emergency fund is depleted now too...).
My Father-in-Law wants us to go to Texas for Christmas and is hounding us to figure out if we're coming or not, but the way things look, I don't think we can go -- and all for the sake of money. I'd basically have to start saving what I'm paying in medical bills now to have the cash to go, but since we have the bills and the budget is too tight with them, I'm not sure how that is going to happen. To anyone out there reading this who don't have debt, DON'T GET ANY. Or if you have to, keep it under 25% of your gross. When you lose one person working, it really taxes things. I went from having a few hundred extra a month to put toward debt to going in the red every month. Not a fun place to be.
Looks like I've got a lot more side work ahead of me...
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Fun With Stimulus
I just got my first paycheck containing our tax cuts. Yes ladies and gets, I'm now the proud recipient of a whopping $33 more dollars a paycheck. Seriously? That's almost not worth the effort of updating Quicken and re-doing budgets. But hey, I'll take what I can get considering how we are going to be screwed later with other hidden taxes.
Things have been a bit rough around the house lately. We still have medical bills trickling in, so my monthly budget is still getting beat down. That, coupled with Terra not working anymore has made things tough. The extra $33 helps, but still doesn't mitigate the problem, just makes it a bit less of a problem.
I've actually been trying a lot harder these days to pick up side work, and finally landed a decent one last night. It involved making a co-op website for 2-4 companies so I think it will probably be a pretty stable gig worth a decent amount of billable hours. I'm going to be billing it out in chunks to hopefully help with the cash flow nightmare I keep getting caught in.
I did realize last night that I probably need to look into quarterly taxes now as well. Before, my side stuff really didn't amount to much and when I turned it in, I was never penalized. This job though, could be worth enough that I might get fined if I don't turn in some sort of taxes on it. I haven't ever had to do something like this before, so I'm not quite sure where to turn. Looks like it may be time to consult one of Dave's ELPs to figure out what to do :).
Anyhow, that's what we've been doing lately -- treading water. My main problem now is time. Working full time, and doing this side stuff is very taxing. I still have some other projects I want to do, but they won't necessarily be bringing in a lot of cash right away. Gotta concentrate my efforts on what will pay the most, even though they aren't on the top of my "this would be cool/fun" list.
Things have been a bit rough around the house lately. We still have medical bills trickling in, so my monthly budget is still getting beat down. That, coupled with Terra not working anymore has made things tough. The extra $33 helps, but still doesn't mitigate the problem, just makes it a bit less of a problem.
I've actually been trying a lot harder these days to pick up side work, and finally landed a decent one last night. It involved making a co-op website for 2-4 companies so I think it will probably be a pretty stable gig worth a decent amount of billable hours. I'm going to be billing it out in chunks to hopefully help with the cash flow nightmare I keep getting caught in.
I did realize last night that I probably need to look into quarterly taxes now as well. Before, my side stuff really didn't amount to much and when I turned it in, I was never penalized. This job though, could be worth enough that I might get fined if I don't turn in some sort of taxes on it. I haven't ever had to do something like this before, so I'm not quite sure where to turn. Looks like it may be time to consult one of Dave's ELPs to figure out what to do :).
Anyhow, that's what we've been doing lately -- treading water. My main problem now is time. Working full time, and doing this side stuff is very taxing. I still have some other projects I want to do, but they won't necessarily be bringing in a lot of cash right away. Gotta concentrate my efforts on what will pay the most, even though they aren't on the top of my "this would be cool/fun" list.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Things Just Keep Getting Interesting
A lot of things have happened since I last posted. Basically, due to the girls' health concerns, my wife had to quit her job to keep the kids out of day care. Needless to say this has severely upset the budget. I think I've got things lined back out, but there isn't any room for extra payments on anything which is depressing. I've been taking up side work to get extra money to help pay on this stuff. So far, I've been able to make about $1300 since this all went down -- so lets hope I can keep this up this year.
During this we did have a couple bright spots though. Some friends of ours pooled together money to give us some cash and a bunch of gift cards to groceries and supermarkets. All in all, we got a few hundred dollars, so we're putting that to good use getting food and trying to make it stretch it as far as we can.
I ended up just banking all of my tax return (which was off by $1500...stupid turbo tax). I'm going to use that to pay off the new medical bills I talked about in my last post(which have started to come in btw), and use the rest to pay down our hospital loan after the dust settles.
Friendly reminder: if anyone wants to help out you can do so with the paypal link to the right :).
During this we did have a couple bright spots though. Some friends of ours pooled together money to give us some cash and a bunch of gift cards to groceries and supermarkets. All in all, we got a few hundred dollars, so we're putting that to good use getting food and trying to make it stretch it as far as we can.
I ended up just banking all of my tax return (which was off by $1500...stupid turbo tax). I'm going to use that to pay off the new medical bills I talked about in my last post(which have started to come in btw), and use the rest to pay down our hospital loan after the dust settles.
Friendly reminder: if anyone wants to help out you can do so with the paypal link to the right :).
Labels:
budget,
loan,
medical bills
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Negotiation Works Wonders
Today I actually accomplished something pretty nifty. I had two separate bills come in from a hospital a month apart. I had set up 3 month payments on the first bill before the second came in (and was three times the first). I managed to get them to combine the two bills AND reset the three months for the new amount. Also, the way it sounded, I could have pushed the payments off a month if I really needed to.
One other minor accomplishment of late was getting the Bank of America to reset my payment date of a loan so that it was in the end of the month. Our bills were WAY too front-loaded on the month to be comfortable (had the budget right, but cashflow was never there). It will take a couple billing cycles to change (a complete crock), but at least they changed it.
The moral of the story? It never hurts to ask I guess. I never really did this sort of thing before because I think I was a bit ashamed to ask for help. The more I'm dealing with this stuff, the more I'm wanting to ask for terms to be different and things of that nature.
One other minor accomplishment of late was getting the Bank of America to reset my payment date of a loan so that it was in the end of the month. Our bills were WAY too front-loaded on the month to be comfortable (had the budget right, but cashflow was never there). It will take a couple billing cycles to change (a complete crock), but at least they changed it.
The moral of the story? It never hurts to ask I guess. I never really did this sort of thing before because I think I was a bit ashamed to ask for help. The more I'm dealing with this stuff, the more I'm wanting to ask for terms to be different and things of that nature.
Monday, January 19, 2009
New Year, New Budget
I finally got to see the net effect of my raise, which ended up being about and extra $160 a month -- not bad. We also decided to cut back on our lunch/weekend budget substantially which added another $120.
The main thing that is killing us is child care. Before, it was around $172 a Week, but we managed to get it down to $129 a week by having family watch the kids two days a week (1 - 3 days cost the same).
The net effect of all this shuffling is an increase of $480 a month in the budget. Some of this has been eaten up by car insurance because I can't afford to pay the lump sum this time around. If we can stick to this new budget, we should be able to make some headway. Really, if we can just suffer through this for about six months, we should start to open up some cash flow again.
Things are going to be tight this month though. I've had to pick up some side work just to make it through a couple unexpected (and forgotten about) bills. Our electric bill this time around was double what I was expecting ($370), and I had COMPLETELY forgotten about license plates -- another $250 or so. My goal is to start fresh in February and STICK TO THE BUDGET. We'll see how that goes. I'm sure there will be extra medical expenses of some sort creep up -- they always seem to :).
The main thing that is killing us is child care. Before, it was around $172 a Week, but we managed to get it down to $129 a week by having family watch the kids two days a week (1 - 3 days cost the same).
The net effect of all this shuffling is an increase of $480 a month in the budget. Some of this has been eaten up by car insurance because I can't afford to pay the lump sum this time around. If we can stick to this new budget, we should be able to make some headway. Really, if we can just suffer through this for about six months, we should start to open up some cash flow again.
Things are going to be tight this month though. I've had to pick up some side work just to make it through a couple unexpected (and forgotten about) bills. Our electric bill this time around was double what I was expecting ($370), and I had COMPLETELY forgotten about license plates -- another $250 or so. My goal is to start fresh in February and STICK TO THE BUDGET. We'll see how that goes. I'm sure there will be extra medical expenses of some sort creep up -- they always seem to :).
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Murphy's at the Door
Just when you start heading down a good path, something has got to get in your way. That's where we are right now. I've completely fallen back to baby step 1 (getting $1000 in the bank) due to another round of medical expenses.
The good news is I did get a raise this year. I haven't gotten my first check with it on there so we can redo our budget, but the budget needs some serious work anyway. Aside from the new found problems, the budget was there to just cover all the bases, not to help us get ahead. The new challenge is to 1) fix the budget with new bills and new income and 2) build in extra to the budget to help pay things down.
I was really in a bad place last weekend just trying to figure out what the heck I was going to do to get out of this mess. I have a lot of things coming due all at once, and had drained the emergency fund due to other unforeseen medical expenses. I'm actually looking forward to doing my taxes because I'm going to be able to write off medical expenses this year. We had nearly $10,000 in medical expenses (most paid, some on credit cards, and some in loans). Subtract the $2000 flex spending account, and I'm still left with a healthy chunk to work with. Granted, you can only write off what is after 7% of your income, but that still leaves me with a few grand to write off :).
I'll probably sit down this weekend to redo my budget with the new numbers (I'll get my first check with the raise on the 15th), so I'll put an update here after I'm done. I know I'm going to have to cut things this time around, just not sure what is left to cut :(
The good news is I did get a raise this year. I haven't gotten my first check with it on there so we can redo our budget, but the budget needs some serious work anyway. Aside from the new found problems, the budget was there to just cover all the bases, not to help us get ahead. The new challenge is to 1) fix the budget with new bills and new income and 2) build in extra to the budget to help pay things down.
I was really in a bad place last weekend just trying to figure out what the heck I was going to do to get out of this mess. I have a lot of things coming due all at once, and had drained the emergency fund due to other unforeseen medical expenses. I'm actually looking forward to doing my taxes because I'm going to be able to write off medical expenses this year. We had nearly $10,000 in medical expenses (most paid, some on credit cards, and some in loans). Subtract the $2000 flex spending account, and I'm still left with a healthy chunk to work with. Granted, you can only write off what is after 7% of your income, but that still leaves me with a few grand to write off :).
I'll probably sit down this weekend to redo my budget with the new numbers (I'll get my first check with the raise on the 15th), so I'll put an update here after I'm done. I know I'm going to have to cut things this time around, just not sure what is left to cut :(
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Tis the Season
With the holidays approaching, some of you may be thinking ahead to all of the fun things you are going to buy, or perhaps the credit card bills you will be left with after things are over. Being a tech junkie myself, I've been greatly tempted by some of the gadget Black Friday deals. So far, I've been able to show some restraint, and my plan for the shopping season should help me continue that trend.
I've decided to do a wholly cash Christmas this year. Sure, it won't be quite as extravagant as previous years, but I'll also not have any after Christmas buyers remorse when those bills start to show up. For friends and family, we are going to do a very small card/candy type of deal saving the bulk of the money for the girls. We're even not really doing anything for each other this year either (our iPhones were our present this year). Although, I am hoping that we'll get enough cash from family for me to go buy a toy of my own :).
We did pretty much the same thing last year and people in the family didn't really complain about it (which is the common fear I hear from people). This year, we actually have a higher budget due to the full year of planning.
Here's to a cash only Christmas and continuing on the debt snowball! Just think of what I'll be able to do next year!
I've decided to do a wholly cash Christmas this year. Sure, it won't be quite as extravagant as previous years, but I'll also not have any after Christmas buyers remorse when those bills start to show up. For friends and family, we are going to do a very small card/candy type of deal saving the bulk of the money for the girls. We're even not really doing anything for each other this year either (our iPhones were our present this year). Although, I am hoping that we'll get enough cash from family for me to go buy a toy of my own :).
We did pretty much the same thing last year and people in the family didn't really complain about it (which is the common fear I hear from people). This year, we actually have a higher budget due to the full year of planning.
Here's to a cash only Christmas and continuing on the debt snowball! Just think of what I'll be able to do next year!
Labels:
budget,
cash,
debt snowball
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Revisiting Your Budget
After a few months of both of us working, we realized that we should have a LOT more money left over than we were netting. We had a basic budget, but figured we could handle some of the non-budgeted items on a case by case basis. Let me tell you, that DOES NOT work :).
We decided to sit down and completely redo the budget, and account for all of the out of budget items we could think of. We calculated it by looking back at averages to better estimate some of the over budget categories. Writing all of this stuff down was a very good exercise for the simple fact that we found the $800 we were missing (and it was a bit frightening).
Doing what Dave says by writing every dollar down before the month is something you REALLY need to do. I thought I could manage the extras, but there are too many extras that can creep into the picture and pretty soon you're missing a large chunk of money. Thankfully, after doing this, we came up with an extra $200 to put toward toward our debt snowball.
Here's to keeping that snowball rolling!
We decided to sit down and completely redo the budget, and account for all of the out of budget items we could think of. We calculated it by looking back at averages to better estimate some of the over budget categories. Writing all of this stuff down was a very good exercise for the simple fact that we found the $800 we were missing (and it was a bit frightening).
Doing what Dave says by writing every dollar down before the month is something you REALLY need to do. I thought I could manage the extras, but there are too many extras that can creep into the picture and pretty soon you're missing a large chunk of money. Thankfully, after doing this, we came up with an extra $200 to put toward toward our debt snowball.
Here's to keeping that snowball rolling!
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
New Month, Same Problems
This month has gone by way too fast. Unfortunately, the extra money I had been looking forward to is being mostly used to break even. Our budget is STILL out of wack -- mainly groceries and gas.
On paper, I'm trying to be conservative to free up money to pay down some of this stuff, but the reality is that I've got four mouths to feed and two cars that need to go quite a ways every week. One thing we are really trying to do is cook more at home and take leftovers for lunch. I've gotten my lunch routine down to a very small amount a day, but it still isn't in the budget. Our emergency fund is still under funded at the moment as well. All I need to do is get ONE thing paid off to gain some traction.
Fortunately (or not) a big medical bill from a hospital here in town has not arrived yet. I got the EOB from the insurance in May showing we owed around $2000. However, it is almost September and I haven't gotten a bill yet. I'm guessing now that it will show up after quarterly review, or at the end of the year when they do their books. There is an off chance some nice person out there just picked up the tab, but that's being too optimistic I suppose. I honestly expect it to hit right around Christmas :).
Throughout all of this, I'm still going to have maybe 600-800 I can put on the Van. Just need to bite the bullet and get that sucker paid off. If anyone wants to use that fancy donate link above, I'd be very appreciative :)
Until next time...
On paper, I'm trying to be conservative to free up money to pay down some of this stuff, but the reality is that I've got four mouths to feed and two cars that need to go quite a ways every week. One thing we are really trying to do is cook more at home and take leftovers for lunch. I've gotten my lunch routine down to a very small amount a day, but it still isn't in the budget. Our emergency fund is still under funded at the moment as well. All I need to do is get ONE thing paid off to gain some traction.
Fortunately (or not) a big medical bill from a hospital here in town has not arrived yet. I got the EOB from the insurance in May showing we owed around $2000. However, it is almost September and I haven't gotten a bill yet. I'm guessing now that it will show up after quarterly review, or at the end of the year when they do their books. There is an off chance some nice person out there just picked up the tab, but that's being too optimistic I suppose. I honestly expect it to hit right around Christmas :).
Throughout all of this, I'm still going to have maybe 600-800 I can put on the Van. Just need to bite the bullet and get that sucker paid off. If anyone wants to use that fancy donate link above, I'd be very appreciative :)
Until next time...
Thursday, July 31, 2008
End of July Update
Things have definitely been interesting this month. Tomorrow we get our first big check for my wife, so we are excited. I've actually had some things come up and had to dig into our emergency fund a little, but that's going to be replenished tomorrow. Hopefully we'll have enough left over to actually pay down more on the Van.
The budget really felt some strain this month. Most of which was the extra overhead of two people driving instead of one, but now that we're starting to get checks coming in it is balancing out. After the dust settles I'll post the outcome :).
I'm actually working on a write up between traditional IRA accounts and Roth IRA accounts, so after I've done enough research I'll post my thoughts. Short answer -- Roth's are the way to go. Find out why in detail soon. :)
The budget really felt some strain this month. Most of which was the extra overhead of two people driving instead of one, but now that we're starting to get checks coming in it is balancing out. After the dust settles I'll post the outcome :).
I'm actually working on a write up between traditional IRA accounts and Roth IRA accounts, so after I've done enough research I'll post my thoughts. Short answer -- Roth's are the way to go. Find out why in detail soon. :)
Monday, June 9, 2008
Shopping Around Pays Off
I just wanted to drop in a quick update on the playset. Turns out, with more shopping around, we found a source for a decent sized kit and a source for wood that is substantially less than we had budgeted for the project. The grand total is going to come in around $530 (with me building it all, of course), so the rest of the money can be put toward debt.
This, along with our upcoming budget restructuring should give us some traction to help get things paid down (and to handle the upcoming medical bills).
This, along with our upcoming budget restructuring should give us some traction to help get things paid down (and to handle the upcoming medical bills).
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