Any Dave Ramsey Total Makeover success stories?

[tonilea]

I thought the classes brought in extra accountability and encouragement. Just knowing that others were making real positive changes helped.

 

[EthansMom]

We didn't pay off our debt using Dave Ramsey, but we did have great success using similar techniques.

About 8 years ago, my company was starting to go through lay-offs. I took a look at our finances and realized that while we could afford for me to be out of work for a few months, we couldn't live off just one income for long. And, DH and I both wanted the option to go to a one income household when we had kids.

We started keeping track of where we were really spending money. Our purchases for books was over $200 some months, eating out was over $400 per month (for two people), we didn't have any credit card balances but we did have hefty student loan payments and some car loans.

What we did: We got rid of extras: call waiting, caller i.d., cable t.v. We trimmed down dramatically on eating out and buying convenience foods; we went to the library instead of buying books. If we NEEDED something, we added it to our list and and bought just off the list. Unless it was an absolute emergency (like a broken car) then we didn't buy anything unless we had the cash to pay for it. We used the Snowball Method to pay off our debt.

In 8 years, we've managed to pay off all of our debt except for our mortgage, we paid cash for some big remodeling projects, and we paid cash for our last car. We've gone to a one-income household, we fully fund a 401k for DH and an IRA for myself, and put money away for the kids' college. We save assiduously for the items that are priorities for us and are able to take one to two family vacations per year.

It is difficult to go from Living Above Your Means to Living Below Your Means, but the payoff is excellent!

Good Luck!

 

[seasidegirl]

All of this Dave Ramsey talk is great. My husband and I are actually facilitators of the Financial Peace University at our church. We have only been doing the DR plan for a year now, but we have paid off our van, bought a used car, and the only debt we have is our mortgage. I think it's very helpful if you can take the class with others. It is very encouraging to go through the program with others.

We just got back from Disney World yesterday. We had a glorious nine day trip. It is so great to travel when you know it's already paid for! Good luck everyone!!

 

[dizkids]

I didnt read the entire thread but so for i LOVE all the motivation and all the great tips. I have a timeshare and we are considering selling it. We just got a notice that the timeshare is remodeling and on top of the $685 per year we have to pay almost $1400 for the remodel.

 

[gtrist4life]

Ok, stumbled on this old thread (6 years ago!!)

Well, me and my wife have finally committed to going down the yellow brick road to be debt free except for the house asap!! We don't have alot, just two car payments to knock out, one at $5k, one at $17K - We are serious about this!

Congratulations to those already on their way!!
Peace and cheers!!

 

[usnuzuloose]

I see that it is an old thread. But we followed the plan. We are not picture perfect. But except for a time share, we have no payments on anything. We pay cash. The economy is still kicking our butts. Our time share will be paid in 4 yrs. We don't want anything on payments. We have one thing on credit report and it goes off in two more yrs. We manage to take a vacation every 2 years. No budget for a Disney vacation, but that is ok.

We take vacations semi close to home. Our time share goes for vegas, so no money OOP for our room. Just transportation and food. So by car it is only 8 hours away.

Best advice cut out anything you don't need. Cable, eating out, things like that. You can do it , if you really work at it.

 

[pryncess527]

OK , So I am reading Total Money Makeover and I have figured out one thing. I can't afford Disney, at least for a year or so.
My husband already has this supper detailed budget, but it is negative. IOW, he wrote everything down that we spend but we spend too much.
Is that really a budget or is that a spending journal? So if we remove Disney trips and eating out, we are almost balanced. (We eat out a lot)
We need to get rid of our DVC bill and our credit card balances so I can get to Disney again. Right now our pay down plan will take 6 years. LOL !

Anyone out there have any success stories they want to share to encourage me? I have to figure out a way to remove debt like the people in the book.

I agree with others who have said that yes, that is a spending journal, not a budget. That's what we used to do, and when we finally learned how to make an actual, real BUDGET, it was like the clouds parted and we could finally see.

What worked for us was not Dave Ramsey though -- what worked for us was something similar, also based on the concept of budgeting to zero -- YNAB. Check out some of their success story posts:

http://forum.youneedabudget.com/categories/success-stories

YNAB taught us how to budget, and also helped us figure out how to save up for both unexpected and expected annual expenses. So we now have a budget category to put aside 1/12 of our yearly car registration, BJs membership, all those other once a year bills that used to surprise us. We figured out how much we want to spend at Christmas and built 1/12 of that amount into every month's budget. And then it also encourages us to make sure we save for unexpected bills too -- car repair, medical, etc.

Using this budget has really made us aware of how we spend our money and where there was room for improvement. We always had to make choices with our money, but with a clearly laid out budget, the trade offs become even more clear and we aren't guessing if we can afford things, we KNOW we can (or can't!) afford things based on the entire picture, not just the current balance in our accounts. I honestly can not recommend it enough!!!!

LOL, I just saw this was an old bumped thread