Have you ever felt like

[kisobel]

great advice from everyone. my best advice is to carry around a small notebood and pencil. write down everytime you spend money. write the amount and be specific what it was for. at the end of the week, write down all your categories on one side of a piece of paper and the total amount spent on the the other side. i started doing this over a year ago. do this for a month and you will be amazed at what you are spending money on. really helped me get focused. this is a lifetime habit you should have.

kate

 

[Taylors6]

I'll first say what we don't have or do....we don't have the Dave Ramsey books, but I have searched online and read a bit about him, and we don't do nearly as great of a job with finances as alot of the people on this board do! (Kudos to you guys! I think you rock! )

What we do have is 3 kids in this house, plus 1 at her moms, lots of extra curricular schedules, FT (plus right now OT) job (DH), PT job (me), and tons of volunteer work, SO...we were in a like situation. Things got hectic and then I'd wake up at 2 AM worrying did I miss paying something!

We have used Money for a few years- well my DH has it set up, and I think its really neat- we can pull reports and stuff to see just where our money went. Its probably similiar to Quicken? But it was like $20-$30 to buy so we went cheap. That said...its only as good as the user. My DH set everything up- and it shows what we owe each week (he is paid weekly), but if you ignore it and/or don't update it then its a pain and is ineffective. So about 7months ago I got tired of worrying about that, and went to my system- which is basically wrote in a notebook- every bill in the order which they come due- with a 3 month at a time slot so I can record when I paid each one. Yes its old school- but I love it- its on a tiny littl yellow paper and fits right in my planner and I can grab it and look quickly to know where I'm at. On Friday I balance the checkbook (yep- went back to a checkbook register- DH keeps one on the Money program) and check the list and pay whatever is due before next week, and then see whats left. Sometimes its not much(thats when we dip into my acct from PT job)!

So yes, its overkill that we are both watching things- but DH is happy with the Money system- and I am happier with having my own "other"system and we check once in a while to make sure we are balanced to eachother. For us is works because if one misses- then the other probably catches it!

Man doesn't it see like there are just too many places to send our money to??

 

[ducklite]

DH gets paid on the 15th and the last day of the month, and I get paid every other week, plus my freelance checks come in when they do.

On the 15th most bills due between the 1st and 14th of the next month are paid--almost everything is set up to either autodeduct or autopay. Then on the 1st the bills due from the 15th of that month through the end of the month are paid, most are again autodeduct or auto pay. Doing your banking online is not only a time saver, but you never have to worry about running out of stamps.

The only things I manually pay are credit cards, mortgage, and insurance because I can't figure out how to set that up to only pay quarterly.

I pay the credit cards manually because they vary from month to month, and the mortgage because it's the one thing that my overdraft protection line isn't large enough to cover, and I want to be absolutely sure the money is there to cover it. (A little paranoid because my paycheck for some reason wasn't direct deposited once due to a computer glitch)

My freelance money goes right into savings. Right now we are saving for two large future expenditures. A trip to Hawaii and a pool. We are 3-5 years away from both, but seeing that money grow every month makes it easier to save.

I would suggest that you stop using the debit card and carry a set amount of cash instead. I'll bet that is where you are frittering through cash without realizing it.

I'd take a good hard look at your finances, create a budget, and stick to it! I'd also track every dime you spend for a couple of weeks and find the places you are spending foolishly. For me that was eating out. Five nights a week--it really added up. Since I stopped doing it about two months ago I've taken ten pounds off, plus saved close to $1000! I've also been couponing and sale shopping, and have saved another $500 or so that way.

Anne

 

[kwhite1022]

There are alot of tools out there to help you, you just have to find the right one for you. I use TMMO, because I need it kept simple, and it doesnt get more simple then spend less then you make I also like having stepts to follow, Im a nerd (and I really think Daves' plan attracts us the most) so I love the spreadsheets and tracking expenses. I could not believe how much we were wasting on eating out and other junk. It took us one year to get debt free, we did a paid for vacation to Disney as well, but did have to take a small loan out for our van because our cash was tied up to prepaid Disney vacation, when the car died. I will have that loan paid off by July, and most of my FFEF ($10,000) now this is with just one person working in our home. That vacation was the best time I ever had, knowing none of it went on credit cards, as was the case years before. Do some research and try to find a plan/mentor that works for you. It doesnt matter who you use, so long as the end result is the same. Best of luck to you.

 

[rockyroad]

I currently have three kids in college.

I have had to accept that there are times in life, like now, in which I will not be able to be debt free.

I do the best that I can in not creating new debt.

However, debt happens!

Situations include kids, repairs, illness, loss of job. I can scrimp and save and plan and still get financially wiped out. This isn't failure...it is a bump in the road and all I can do is try to at least stay on the road and out of the ditch.

Many things are beyond my control and all I can do is my best to deal with it and to remember that this is not a rehearsal...this is my life and since I don't get a "do over" then I need to find ways to cope and to enjoy life.

 

[tiff211]

This thread has been so inspirational to me and I plan to use some of these great ideas. Due to our move, we went through a terrible time financially and I see the light at the end of the rainbow. Things are much better now but it's repairing and rebuilding time. We have done away with all credit cards so that feels good. Now, we have decided to use cash only for purchases except for groceries and gas. My bank offers grocery reward points to use the check card so I set aside enough to do that.

We are leaving for our trip in 10 days. I thought about cancelling it figuring the money would be better used to rebuild our saving but my dad, thank you daddy, told me I can't disappoint his grandbabies and gave me money for the trip. We had downsized a lot but at least we still get to go!

DD4 starts free pre-k this year so that will decrease daycare expenses. DH's pay grade goes up and he will also have an extra $300 in his check as they "fronted" his first pay and then took it out of his other checks equally. So, that will give us about another $800 a month!

Now we are looking to see if it would be better financially if DH worked thorugh the summer (he's a teacher) or kept DD4 and DD6 home with him. I guess I should think about how he will fairly mentally as well!

 

[mousefanmichelle]

I feel like you everyday - you are not alone.

I work FT, my husband works FT and I think we make good money but truthfully it's just not enough. Between the mortgage, Home equity loan, credit cards (3), 2 car payments, utilities, groceries and gasoline for the cars there isn't enough left over at the end of each month to even stick your tounge out and catch a snowflake much less roll a snowball.

I have cut down the money we spend on eating out and when we do eat out - dollar menu or $5 pizza at Ceasers and it really isn't that often. I have cut down the dishnetwork pkg - I could cut it down again tho to just basic. We don't have internet - and that is it for the extra's at home. As far as 2 car payments - we both need reliable cars because we both work 1 hour away from home - my hubby has an economy car - good gas mileage and low car pymt - then my van - again I get good gas mileage but the pymt is high to me $331 a month. I can't really see cutting those out and buying a junker like others have mentioned. Gasoline for the cars - since prices are going up again is a major killer about $400-480 a month!!! I hate spending money on that. I am at a loss. How do you make cuts when there isn't that much to cut? I guess I just need a starting point. I think about that each month and then the next month is here and I still haven't "gotten it" so to speak.

My husband doesn't help with the finances for several reason - mostly because of me - I don't let him help. I think it is time that he and I approach it together. Maybe if we tackle it together we can get futher ahead. I know the approach of the TMMO but I can't seem to get it started.

Good luck to you and to the others just like us because I am sure there are more and may we find light at the end of our tunnels and become debt free!!

 

[CrzyforPiglet]

great advice from everyone. my best advice is to carry around a small notebood and pencil. write down everytime you spend money. write the amount and be specific what it was for. at the end of the week, write down all your categories on one side of a piece of paper and the total amount spent on the the other side.

This is great advice but it didn't work for me - I would still end up with "spending amnesia" when the credit card bills came b/c I'd forget to write down the gas I bought or the quick run to the grocery store, etc. Every month I thought "oh I haven't spent that much" would be the month I spent as much as or more than the last month. The only thing that has worked for me is to carry cash. I give myself $100-120 each week and that pays for groceries with whatever is left over for me to spend or save. It is hard but I am no longer afraid of the credit card statements and really do scrutinize my spending choices b/c I know the $4.00 latte today means I'm further away from buying the shoes I want. I also cut our grocery budget in half simply by meal planning a week in advance and really shopping the sales. Every week we'll have a cheap eats night (pasta, grilled cheese, etc) and we also don't eat out nearly as much as we used to. Look at your budget/spending and really be critical about what you're spending and what you can do without TEMPORARILY! Once you pay down some more debt you can add those things back into your budget.

The other thing you may want to consider is if any of your existing cards will give you a fixed interest rate on balance transfers (maybe one of the ones you paid off). That's one of the ways we got out of debt. We had a HEL at 8.75% that I kept paying down until I was able to transfer it to a CC with a 4% fixed interest until paid off. You'll pay a small fee to do a balance transfer (read the fine print) but maybe it would be easier for you to have just one payment instead of 3. Give your cards a call - especially if you've paid off a card - we've found those companies are the most anxious to give you a deal so they can make money off the interest.

Good luck - you're already done so great paying off some of your cards!

Laurie

 

[feedindy]

We created an Excel spreadsheet that listedo our monthly income, all bills and estimated groceries and gas. This allows you to see how much is "leftover" at the end of each month to work with. This worked okay, but things would come up that threw it into a tailspin. We use Quicken and categorize everything. We looked at some reports of last year's spending and took those things that are not in the monthly budget-clothing, gifts, car repair, household expenses like lightbulbs and air filters, etc-and divided by 12. Then we added that to our monthly budget. We set aside money for those things o that when they come up, it's there to use.

What really helped was using Quicken to categorize-it was easy to see where our money was going because every last penny was accounted for. I would recommend keeping a carefuly chart of every dime you spend for a month or so. It is a real eye opener to see where your monthly budget is bleeding. Then you can adjust things you are spending too high on, budget for things you need and keep a better working plan for each paycheck.

ETA: For those of you who use credit cards for monthly expenses, one thing that helped us was to treat it like a checking account. You can get blank check registers and force yourself to deduct every time you spend something and add every time you make a payment. This way you will know where your money is going and if you get into a habit of writing it down in your register just like a checking account there will be no surprises when the bill arrives.

 

[jnorth1007]

For those that do this, do you sit there after every pay check and manually divert the funds or have you managed to split the paycheck so that the funds automatically all go their separate ways? I'm thinking we need the latter so that there's no room for error, it just happens and we never touch it, kind of like the 401K where we never have to manually make a deposit- it just automatically puts a certain amount in from each check.

I do it different ways. DH payroll will only allow 3 different DD on each pay so I have $200 a paycheck deposited to one bank (this started at $25 and everytime I paid off a debt or he got a raise I upped the amount) this money is used for major purchases. If we don't have enough we don't buy until we do. I also have $100 a paycheck deposited to our local credit union. This money is used for our emergency fund. It doesn't get touched unless there is just no other way. The rest is deposited into checking. I have an online savings with HSBC that autodeposits from my checking account $75 every payday. This is our vacation money. I note this autowithdraw on my spreadsheet as a bill so I don't forget it is coming out. Since it comes out the same day our money is direct deposited I never really see it. I also have an account with our checking account bank that is a Christmas club account. No fees and it pays out in November so I can go buy all of our gifts at once. This money is transferred $50 per payday from checking to savings. I also note this as a bill on my spreadsheet. The childrens college funds are through our state 529 plan I have it set up to withdraw automatically $30 each per month from checking. I do 1 on the 1st and 2 on the 15th. This is also noted as a debt. I made paying myself (in savings) into a debt that had to be paid. The remainder is used to pay bills. I pay all bills online. They are either auto debit or I actually manually pay online. This means that the money is removed on the 1st or 15th or very close to that so once its gone I can't spend it on other non necessities. I only ever pay two bills by check, daycare and electric bills. Daycare because they don't accept anything but checks and electric bill because it is down the street from my home and I can just drop it off. I hope that this helps you some. I think the basic idea is to take control of your bills and be aware of them on a daily basis not just on the days that they are due and to make bills and savings the priority and live on what is left. You will be amazed what you can make due with once the money is gone. You won't even consider eating out everyday when you have paid everything and you only have 200.00 to make till the next payday. It is certainly freeing to not have to worry about bills. It doesn't take long before the debt starts to go away and the savings starts to add up and you find that you have more and more left over after paying bills and savings every month.

 

[kwhite1022]

. As far as 2 car payments - we both need reliable cars because we both work 1 hour away from home - my hubby has an economy car - good gas mileage and low car pymt - then my van - again I get good gas mileage but the pymt is high to me $331 a month.

Im gonna be frank and say, your making excuses, Ive made them myself before, but if you really truely want out of debt, you proabably have a good start right here. I also live in Michigan, and my hubby drives an hour one way to work, so I know all about needing reliable cars, but you can find reliable cars at a lower cost. Cars seem to be the hardest thing for people to give up, I know people who sold their house before they sold their cars Now that being said, I dont know your financial status, maybe your not in deep debt, or just need to cut back a little, and then keeping these is a personal choice, but if you would consider yourself "in debt" this is for sure where I would focus my attention. I hope you find the answer to grant you financial peace, there is nothing like it.

 

[STLDisney_Freak]

Wow, I came here this morning and there was 3 pages of replies. You guys rock! Thank You for all the suggestions they truly do help. I sat down with my quicken program last night and really started setting it up. I also have a notebook that I write down everything in. I've actually been doing this for a few months. I guess it just seems like every time you get something paid down then either the car breaks down or the car needs breaks or dd 1 needs summer clothes or dd2 gets sick, etc. But then that is life so I guess there isn't anything you can do about it...
I know someone replied about the vacation savings I just wanted to reply that the "vacation" savings is actually for our family trips to go see my husbands family. We live in St. Louis and my husband's family lives in Pittsburgh. We like to visit at least once a year, but it doesn't always work out that way. We usually rent a car and then end up staying with my husband's family that way the girls get to see their grandma/grandpa alot more.

 

[Disney Debbie]

For those that do this, do you sit there after every pay check and manually divert the funds or have you managed to split the paycheck so that the funds automatically all go their separate ways? I'm thinking we need the latter so that there's no room for error, it just happens and we never touch it, kind of like the 401K where we never have to manually make a deposit- it just automatically puts a certain amount in from each check.

I have just one ING account, but I have 3 deposits automatically go to it a month. It is set up as a reminder just like the other bills in Quicken so I don't ever "see" it and think I have it sitting around to spend! I keep the balances for each category on my spreadsheet. So if my balance was $1500, my spreadsheet would be divided up - $1000 Emergency fund, $200 Clothing, $100 Car Repair, $200 Household Maint.

 

[rockyroad]

great advice from everyone. my best advice is to carry around a small notebood and pencil. write down everytime you spend money. write the amount and be specific what it was for. at the end of the week, write down all your categories on one side of a piece of paper and the total amount spent on the the other side. i started doing this over a year ago. do this for a month and you will be amazed at what you are spending money on. really helped me get focused. this is a lifetime habit you should have.

kate

This is an excellent idea and is really similiar to the Weight Watcher's log of everything one eats.

I can do this.

 

[mudnuri]

I think one of the biggest problems with debit cards, along with credit cards, is it makes your money way to easy to spend.

I have a debit card, that never leaves my house I use it for online bill payments, and things such as that, but ONLY use cash when I buy things. I am not following anyones plan, and have not started the savings yet, because I'm still a single mom of 2 thats a full time college student, struggling to make ends meet- BUT when I am done with school next year, and working full time, the only debt I will have accumulated is my student loans, and my durango payment.

I have tried all the different ways of budgeting, and the only thing that actually worked for me was using cash. I know how much goes out each month, and how much has to be put into the checking account to cover the bills paid that way. My spreadsheets look WAY different than any of yours, because I get large amounts of $ when financial aid comes in. At that time, it's put into savings, then moved to checking monthly to pay that months bills. Each month, my grocery/household money is taken out into cash, and my monthly cash is what I get. If I spend more- I dont get more. Thats it.

A big thing that I have noticed a lot of people do is underestimate their spending. I took a complete month, from the 1st to the 30th and kept every receipt I had, and wrote down things without (that 2.37 cup of dnd coffee etc) and then went through and put them all into catagories. Obviously some I could not cut- like gas for the durango- I HAVE to drive to school and clinical sites etc.. but by using a complete months spending in that catagory, I have not gone over yet. Some weeks are less, some weeks are more, but by the end of the month, I haven't run out of gas money.

Groceries you can cut, either seriously or not so much. I have certain foods that I prefer the name brand of, and won't buy generic. I wait for coupons or I contact the company regarding coupons etc. I buy them when they are on sale etc.

I farmers market for veggies in the summer/fall here. Always buy corn on the cob at the stand, for 2.00 a dozen instead of 5.00 at the grocery store etc. I think the worst part about saving grocery money is it makes it harder to eat healthier. Processed foods are becoming so cheap and easy, it makes it easier to eat crappy. I search for bargins for food.

Our meat we buy at a butcher shop, not a grocery store. The cuts are WAY better, less fat etc. and are almost ALWAYS cheaper. I have a large chest freezer, that I fill, with 'box-o-meats' from our butcher, it's a set price for like 50lbs of meat, and some stuff we dont eat, so he substitutes..giving us chicken in place of hotdogs, or other less healthy meats.

I also cook on some weekends, filling the freezer that way, it might seem more expensive at first, but I can cook 2 days, and eat for 45-50...works!

Brandy

 

[bnhasak]

OT.....just wanted to say Tiff, your girls are adorable. What a cute picture.

My DH is a teacher too, and honestly I don't know if he would be less stressed taking a PT job this summer than staying home all day with the kids. LOL!

I thought about working this summer, and giving him some down time w/ the kids, but I know he can probably make more $ than I can.

I hope some day his "summers off" will really be just that.

 

[CrzyforPiglet]

ALL THE TIME!!! I was just thinking about this today - I've been so good sacrificing for about a month and a half but for some reason this past week I've been backsliding here and there. Nothing major but enough for me to realize I need to stop this before I keep going down the slippery slope and have to hike all the way back up. I think it is good though to try and give yourself some slack maybe once a month. What I do is give myself $20 to spend at Target anyway I want. I really try to challenge myself to make that $20 stretch as far as I can and it feels good to give myself permission to cheat a little. I just hope getting into the frugal mindset will get easier the more I do it!

 

[lovemygoofy]

Why can't you defer your student loans while you both are still in school? You could take that money and roll it into one of your cc payments.

How much do you and your husband need for spending money in one month? What is the spending money for? Honestly, if you are at the point where you are negative at the end of the month then you don't need spending money if you count it for lunches out and coffees or other extras. Counting gas in your cars is something that should be in your budget every month.

You mentioned how to have spending money for you and your husband. I'm guessing that one uses the debit card and one uses the credit card? Use cash. On that Sunday go to the ATM and withdraw $10-$20 per person depending on how much you can spare and if you don't have that then don't spend it.

If you are coming out in the red at the end of the month, there are something you have to cut out. Whether it be eating out, coffee out, renting videos, having extras on your cable and phone, or just shopping for the sake of shopping. I know that it sounds easier to say than do but many people have done it.

When my husband and I married, we had a bedroom suit and a card table and chairs for furniture. We didn't have the money for anything else and didn't buy anything else for 8 months. We couldn't afford cable so we went to the library to check out movies and books. Back then the movies weren't even new movies and now my husband can tell you about most of the musicals created in the 50s and 60s. The most important thing is that both you and your husband have to be on board for the budgeting and cutting out things or this doesn't work. Good luck, you're on your way by paying off those 3 cards and realizing that you need some help.

 

[ducklite]

OT--Tina, just wanted to tell you that I really like the new photo in your signature--it's a very flattering photo of you!

Anne

 

[lovemygoofy]

OT--Tina, just wanted to tell you that I really like the new photo in your signature--it's a very flattering photo of you!

Anne

Thanks, Anne