Debt Dumpers - 2013

[VeeHam]

So far in the first 2 months of this year we've paid off $1,191 and are on track to pay off 1 credit card this month with our income tax return helping with that. It will be so freeing to not owe on our credit cards! Keep up the good work everyone-I love hearing your success stories.

Wow! That's so wonderful. Great job!

 

[vegasnative]

I know right, $2000 on food is ridiculous! I guess we bought too much turkey, lol. We are impulse buyers though, we say 'oh, we need bread' then head out to the shop, buy bread and then a load of other things we don't need! Lol!

The $900 is putting aside gas money, and all the 'regular' bills we get each month, like the mortgage, electricity, insurance, etc. So the $900 is for things like clothes, days out, household items, unexpected bills, etc. I have set a budget of around $300 for clothes each month, which it seems we don't spend on clothes! So I have no clue what we spend the $300 on in the first place, haha. I suppose it's hard to set budgets when we don't know how much we spend on everything. All I know is that we have spent more than we have coming in, but with a bit of planning, I am hoping to turn that all around!

Meg~ Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

Can I just offer advice/my opinion that I think might help? You need to be more specific with your numbers. Instead of budgeting $900 for regular bills, you need to budget for your electric bill, budget for your water, budget for gas, budget for cable. For example, I put aside $200 a month for our electric/gas bill. (our electric and natural gas come on the same bill). I have kept track over the years how much we pay each month so I know my monthly average is about $180, that is for 12 months. Winter months my bill is over $200 and summer months it can be under a $100, but I set aside $200 every month.
If you have not been keeping track yourself, you should be able to log onto your power company and look at previous months bills.
I just think if you get better knowledge of your numbers it will help you.
Does this make sense? Sometimes I don't explain myself right.

Another example, I budget $30 a month for water. That means I take $30 and set it aside each month for water. I don't do this with cold hard cash, but I use a spreadsheet so it is $30 electronically. Our water bill in the winter is $12, in the summer it is $60+. So when I pay my bill I take X amount from the E-envelope and pay the bill.

A lot of times these E-envelopes grow because I usually budget high.

 

[gracie1]

Can I just offer advice/my opinion that I think might help? You need to be more specific with your numbers. Instead of budgeting $900 for regular bills, you need to budget for your electric bill, budget for your water, budget for gas, budget for cable. For example, I put aside $200 a month for our electric/gas bill. (our electric and natural gas come on the same bill). I have kept track over the years how much we pay each month so I know my monthly average is about $180, that is for 12 months. Winter months my bill is over $200 and summer months it can be under a $100, but I set aside $200 every month.
If you have not been keeping track yourself, you should be able to log onto your power company and look at previous months bills.
I just think if you get better knowledge of your numbers it will help you.
Does this make sense? Sometimes I don't explain myself right.

Another example, I budget $30 a month for water. That means I take $30 and set it aside each month for water. I don't do this with cold hard cash, but I use a spreadsheet so it is $30 electronically. Our water bill in the winter is $12, in the summer it is $60+. So when I pay my bill I take X amount from the E-envelope and pay the bill.

A lot of times these E-envelopes grow because I usually budget high.

This was a great explanation!! That's what I tried to say but you said it so much better

 

[tinkerone]

We seem to have around $1500 each month that we have spent that is unaccounted for. Our overdraft last month was shocking and we have now started to enforce a strict budget for the next few months. $600 on food for the whole family of five plus our wee dog each month is a challenge but I will enjoy the challenge. Then $900 on other necessities, clothes, household items, etc. it is hard and I have annoyed everyone by noting down everything we spend, however I think we need to. We have been overdrawn for years and now we have a great plan for getting completely debt free by this December!

We have already saved $400 this week by only buying what we truly need. It's our food bills that are shocking. In December we spent almost $2000 on food. Ridiculous.

Does anyone have any good ideas for keeping track of money and setting budgets? I'm kind of stuck on where to begin.

Meg~ Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

I retired last year and had to figure out a way to cut my costs and budget. before this I paid little to no attention to what we spent or what we spent it on but I knew this would have to change as my income was going to be cut in half.
first thing I did in jan 2012 was set up a binder where I had sections for everything and recorded any money that went out. I did this for the whole year and it was an eye opener. I took all my recipts and wrote them into the binder daily, recording how much was spent, what store it was spent at and who spent it. I also had a page set up to record take home pays. this way I was able to see at the end of the month if I was ahead or behind. it also made me see where I was going wrong. restaurants were way out of control so we began to focus on that to get it down. my gas page recorded which car the gas went into or if it was for the lawn mower or snow blower. I have a page for misc items (this is anything that does not fit into any of the major catagories) as well and have seen we need to control that better. at year end I made an excel sheet to have one total for each month from each cat.
so, this January I started a new binder for 2013. I have last years binder right beside it and I am able to (and do) pull that binder out to compare to what I spent in a specific month last year to this year. I can now cut back where I see waste from last year.
you will be surprised what you learn when you write it down. I was.

 

[gracie1]

So far in the first 2 months of this year we've paid off $1,191 and are on track to pay off 1 credit card this month with our income tax return helping with that. It will be so freeing to not owe on our credit cards! Keep up the good work everyone-I love hearing your success stories.

Great job

 

[ceemys]

I want to jump on board! I haven't read through all the pages yet (and I will soon), but I'm sure everyone is doing great. I just paid off my last bill. And it feels so Great!! But just because I have all my bills to zero, doesn't mean I have spending money. sigh. I have to save $10,000 by October. $8,000 is my house down payment, then $800 for my first year on my house mortgage, and then I have to pay $750 for my apt complex on cancelling they 12 month lease 4 months early. grr. The extra, is just in case. I really want to save more, but we will see how it goes. I have $2300 so far. I have knocked out eating out to once a month and I limit grocery shopping to once a week.....if we are out, then we are out. We will do what I call "pantry" eating. lol

I just tell myself and my kids, that getting our house downpayment completed is more important than going or doing what they want to at this time.

 

[gracie1]

I want to jump on board! I haven't read through all the pages yet (and I will soon), but I'm sure everyone is doing great. I just paid off my last bill. And it feels so Great!! But just because I have all my bills to zero, doesn't mean I have spending money. sigh. I have to save $10,000 by October. $8,000 is my house down payment, then $800 for my first year on my house mortgage, and then I have to pay $750 for my apt complex on cancelling they 12 month lease 4 months early. grr. The extra, is just in case. I really want to save more, but we will see how it goes. I have $2300 so far. I have knocked out eating out to once a month and I limit grocery shopping to once a week.....if we are out, then we are out. We will do what I call "pantry" eating. lol

I just tell myself and my kids, that getting our house downpayment completed is more important than going or doing what they want to at this time.

Congrats on having your cc's paid off!! And congrats on getting your new house!!

 

[jenny105]

Iv been doing the saving plan. I have about $80 saved. I'm skipping around depending on my budget. Iv been paying off a few credit cards. I have 3 other cc to pay off this month so next month I will be able to save dec high amount. May I will save nov savings amounts . Then June Octobers. I don't work in the summer so that when I will save the lower amounts. I love this plan and its extra $$$ I wound not have had
so I hope to do this plan every year

I'm skipping around too. That's much easier than trying to come up with an extra $200 in the month of December. Better to get it out of the way when I can So far I'm up to $104. I'm hoping to do this every year too. It's a great plan!

 

[ceemys]

So far in the first 2 months of this year we've paid off $1,191 and are on track to pay off 1 credit card this month with our income tax return helping with that. It will be so freeing to not owe on our credit cards! Keep up the good work everyone-I love hearing your success stories.

Great job!

 

[Sagginit]

Sounds like you have a great plan in place!! Hope you guys have a great time in Disney!!! I still would like to go to Disney at Christmas to see all the lights.

that's my plan this year too! i formerly slaved away my novembers in retail and now am free to go see the mouse. my mother says she wants to go back so i have a travel buddy for a fall trip.

i have almost $450 in disney visa rewards so for my portion the trip by the fall will most likely be half covered by rewards (as long as we can get free dining or a good deal).

as for debt dumping i am going to write another $500 check towards my students loans today. march is a 3 paycheck month so what i decided to do is split my first two checks, part towards bills/savings, part towards student loans.

 

[gracie1]

that's my plan this year too! i formerly slaved away my novembers in retail and now am free to go see the mouse. my mother says she wants to go back so i have a travel buddy for a fall trip.

i have almost $450 in disney visa rewards so for my portion the trip by the fall will most likely be half covered by rewards (as long as we can get free dining or a good deal).

as for debt dumping i am going to write another $500 check towards my students loans today. march is a 3 paycheck month so what i decided to do is split my first two checks, part towards bills/savings, part towards student loans.

I love the 3 month pays! Way to go on your debt I have been pricing the disney trip but haven't decided yet. Thinking of a cruise too!!

 

[jessicaerv]

Does anyone have any good ideas for keeping track of money and setting budgets? I'm kind of stuck on where to begin.

Meg~ Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

I'm coming out of lurkdom to recommend a website that has free spreadsheet templates, and several different types of budgeting ones. Take a look through them to see which one will fit your family and needs best.

http://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/budgets.html

I use this website for its templates for so many different things (mortgage calculators, budget spreadsheets, running log, etc.)

On a personal note, I am really inspired by you guys and your progress. I find myself in a pretty good position right now. We have our emergency fund fully funded (about 12 months worth, actually), we have started pulling some money out of savings for investments, we paid off a couple of my student loans last year using my MIL's life insurance money (around $12k). We don't carry balances on our credit cards, we are not underwater on our mortgage and we pay a little extra on it every month. The problem I'm seeing is we are overspending every month. We should have a cushion after our paychecks, but I'm not seeing it. I need to take my own advice and use the budget spreadsheet to reel my spending in!!

 

[gracie1]

I'm coming out of lurkdom to recommend a website that has free spreadsheet templates, and several different types of budgeting ones. Take a look through them to see which one will fit your family and needs best.

http://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/budgets.html

I use this website for its templates for so many different things (mortgage calculators, budget spreadsheets, running log, etc.)

On a personal note, I am really inspired by you guys and your progress. I find myself in a pretty good position right now. We have our emergency fund fully funded (about 12 months worth, actually), we have started pulling some money out of savings for investments, we paid off a couple of my student loans last year using my MIL's life insurance money (around $12k). We don't carry balances on our credit cards, we are not underwater on our mortgage and we pay a little extra on it every month. The problem I'm seeing is we are overspending every month. We should have a cushion after our paychecks, but I'm not seeing it. I need to take my own advice and use the budget spreadsheet to reel my spending in!!

You have done a great job with your debt I have an emergency fund with a years worth of my mortgage in it, and my cc will be paid off by the end of this month! Every month I pay a little extra towards my mortgage ($28) not much but I do it. I plan on sinking extra each month onto my home equity loan, once my cc is paid off.

 

[clintswifeymomof4]

I was super busy this weekend but just got caught up with the updates! Y'all are doing awesome! It seems like we are all on the same page too even though I wasn't around this weekend which is kinda neat.

Friday night I came home and reorganized my coupon binder, checked my coupon sites, printed some more, and made a shopping list- ready to pounce on Saturday. I was able to buy everything I needed (and then some) for under my budget using the coupons, deals, and price comparison. It felt good to make time for it again because I saved well over $100.

Then I just made my own spreadsheets to keep track of our spending. I have a main monthly budget page and then I created a separate sheet for each category that I can itemize. For example... I have one titled Fuel that I list each of our gas transactions by date, store, and amount. That way I can keep up with if I'm making my budget, etc. I have it set up to total and them autopopulate my budget sheet.

The same goes for groceries, bills, eating out, redbox/itunes, and "extras." So far in 5 days we have spent over $160 in EATING OUT. Now I know where our money is going. And then another $100 in "extras." So yeah- kinda eye opening and it's only March 4. We still have the entire month to go!

The spreadsheets will take a tiny bit of work for me to enter our daily transactions on the corresponding page- but then the math and all is done automatically. It took me about 2 hours to do because I'm not very tech savvy. It isn't pretty but it is functional.

Lawyer tomorrow ($100 consultation fee) and hopefully he can get the ball rolling on my ex's back child support. I may not ever see a dime of it but by golly he shouldn't be walking around free as a bird!

 

[gracie1]

I was super busy this weekend but just got caught up with the updates! Y'all are doing awesome! It seems like we are all on the same page too even though I wasn't around this weekend which is kinda neat.

Friday night I came home and reorganized my coupon binder, checked my coupon sites, printed some more, and made a shopping list- ready to pounce on Saturday. I was able to buy everything I needed (and then some) for under my budget using the coupons, deals, and price comparison. It felt good to make time for it again because I saved well over $100.

Then I just made my own spreadsheets to keep track of our spending. I have a main monthly budget page and then I created a separate sheet for each category that I can itemize. For example... I have one titled Fuel that I list each of our gas transactions by date, store, and amount. That way I can keep up with if I'm making my budget, etc. I have it set up to total and them autopopulate my budget sheet.

The same goes for groceries, bills, eating out, redbox/itunes, and "extras." So far in 5 days we have spent over $160 in EATING OUT. Now I know where our money is going. And then another $100 in "extras." So yeah- kinda eye opening and it's only March 4. We still have the entire month to go!

The spreadsheets will take a tiny bit of work for me to enter our daily transactions on the corresponding page- but then the math and all is done automatically. It took me about 2 hours to do because I'm not very tech savvy. It isn't pretty but it is functional.

Lawyer tomorrow ($100 consultation fee) and hopefully he can get the ball rolling on my ex's back child support. I may not ever see a dime of it but by golly he shouldn't be walking around free as a bird!

It's crazy how much you spend eating out!! It never seems like your spending that much, but boy does it add up!! Good luck tomorrow with your lawyer! I hope you get some of the money owed by your ex for child support.

 

[VeeHam]

I was super busy this weekend but just got caught up with the updates! Y'all are doing awesome! It seems like we are all on the same page too even though I wasn't around this weekend which is kinda neat.

Friday night I came home and reorganized my coupon binder, checked my coupon sites, printed some more, and made a shopping list- ready to pounce on Saturday. I was able to buy everything I needed (and then some) for under my budget using the coupons, deals, and price comparison. It felt good to make time for it again because I saved well over $100.

Then I just made my own spreadsheets to keep track of our spending. I have a main monthly budget page and then I created a separate sheet for each category that I can itemize. For example... I have one titled Fuel that I list each of our gas transactions by date, store, and amount. That way I can keep up with if I'm making my budget, etc. I have it set up to total and them autopopulate my budget sheet.

The same goes for groceries, bills, eating out, redbox/itunes, and "extras." So far in 5 days we have spent over $160 in EATING OUT. Now I know where our money is going. And then another $100 in "extras." So yeah- kinda eye opening and it's only March 4. We still have the entire month to go!

The spreadsheets will take a tiny bit of work for me to enter our daily transactions on the corresponding page- but then the math and all is done automatically. It took me about 2 hours to do because I'm not very tech savvy. It isn't pretty but it is functional.

Lawyer tomorrow ($100 consultation fee) and hopefully he can get the ball rolling on my ex's back child support. I may not ever see a dime of it but by golly he shouldn't be walking around free as a bird!

Good luck with the lawyer. We also eat out way too much. We're working on this.

 

[tinkerone]

we really had to cut back on the eating out. we do eat out more times than we should but now its to Costco for what I lovingly call 'the senior special'. hotdog and drink for $1.50 and that now seems decadent! lol.
it satiates our need to eat out and that's all that matters.

 

[ceemys]

I'm coming out of lurkdom to recommend a website that has free spreadsheet templates, and several different types of budgeting ones. Take a look through them to see which one will fit your family and needs best.

http://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/budgets.html

I use this website for its templates for so many different things (mortgage calculators, budget spreadsheets, running log, etc.)

On a personal note, I am really inspired by you guys and your progress. I find myself in a pretty good position right now. We have our emergency fund fully funded (about 12 months worth, actually), we have started pulling some money out of savings for investments, we paid off a couple of my student loans last year using my MIL's life insurance money (around $12k). We don't carry balances on our credit cards, we are not underwater on our mortgage and we pay a little extra on it every month. The problem I'm seeing is we are overspending every month. We should have a cushion after our paychecks, but I'm not seeing it. I need to take my own advice and use the budget spreadsheet to reel my spending in!!

Thanks for this link! I downloaded one that fits how I budget. I know I have cut my spending down, but man it really is an eye opener on where your money goes. Insurance, gas, rent, electricity, etc. Just the monthly expenses are crazy to actually see it written down. I showed my oldest where the money goes and she was amazed and started to understand why I am always saying 'no' to going places.

 

[ceemys]

we really had to cut back on the eating out. we do eat out more times than we should but now its to Costco for what I lovingly call 'the senior special'. hotdog and drink for $1.50 and that now seems decadent! lol.
it satiates our need to eat out and that's all that matters.

Good for you! It doesn't matter where you eat, sometimes just actually eating out is all that matters. We really cut back on eating out a lot also. It's hard, but worth it in the savings department.

 

[gracie1]

Good for you! It doesn't matter where you eat, sometimes just actually eating out is all that matters. We really cut back on eating out a lot also. It's hard, but worth it in the savings department.

I love your savings ticker And what a great idea showing your kids the spreadsheet so they understand how much money is being spent!