From the depths of debt to a cash based existence

There are ways of working around a spouse who isn’t as enthused about paying off debt and living debt free in the future and I think I stumbled into one of them the other day.

After having my husband’s car die a horrible death a couple of weeks ago and having to buy another one (because my husband is/was positive this car could not be fixed for less than it would cost to buy another car) it occurred to me that I might just be going about my debt snowball all wrong. … "An alternative debt snowball method" continues >

I am rewarding myself today, for sticking to my budget and paying the budgeted extra on my debt this month. I bought a camera because my old one broke when I unintentionally knocked it to the floor. I’m also going out to eat with a friend today before we go walking in the local park (with the kids in tow).

Today, I feel good about the decision, but last night, I really struggled.

My problem is in defining at what point I should stop throwing every extra cent I have at my debt so that I can live a reasonably balanced life, buying what I need and occasionally, what I want.

Yes, you could take your lunch to work every day and save a ton of money. But do you have to, just because you’ve decided to live a cash based life and get completely out of debt?

… "Are rewards for successfully paying down debt a good idea?" continues >

Vigilance pays off.

Saturday morning my husband went to return a boat battery to Wal-mart because after only three uses, the battery wouldn’t hold a charge.

The clerk gladly refunded his money so he could exchange the battery for a new battery, but told my husband that there would be a core charge for the new battery.

My husband didn’t think anything of it, except to tell me (by cell phone) that he would need to find an old battery to turn in so he could get his $9.00 core charge back.

A $9.00 core charge on a replacement for a defective battery?

I don’t think so. … "Common sense living: Refuse to pay what you don’t owe" continues >

Getting and staying debt free is full of tough choices. Should you stay in and eat alone (and save money) or eat out with friends (and go into debt)? Buy birthday gifts for your friends (go into debt) or explain why you can’t give gifts this year (and save money)?

No matter what decision you ultimately make, you’ve had to make a tough choice.

These are actually quite minor choices when compared to the choice I’m talking about today.

I’ve been struggling with the problem of how to decide what’s most important to me and my family: pay down debt or save for emergencies. … "Tough choices: Pay down debt or save for emergencies?" continues >

I’m angry. I just spent the last few minutes watching more depressing news about the idiots in Washington. Spend, spend, spend. Apparently consumer spending is down and so financial experts are wondering if the government is going to have to spend even more money to keep the finances of the United States from falling apart. I’m sure glad someone knows how to throw money at a problem and make it go away.

Many of us have realized the necessity of paying down our debt, cutting out excessive spending–some of us are even trimming unnecessary spending (voluntarily or otherwise). We’re doing this because reality has caught up with us.

They want to save us, and that’s a nice sentiment—but we’re in a burning building and they’re drowning us in debt in their effort to put out the fire with spending!

Why can’t they see that they’re not helping us? I don’t believe we’ll ever get to a stable economy or reach any kind of equilibrium as long as the government is trying to take over the role of individuals as consumer, spending money we don’t have. … "Meltdown of common sense living" continues >

Allie is a close friend of mine who has also embraced the idea that now is the perfect time to get out of debt, let go of old spending habits, and start fresh with a cash-based life. She recently took a vacation, and this is her story of budgeting and saving success in an area where it’s often hard to impossible to keep spending under control.

Allie’s story

My Vacation

So it took some doing, but I was finally able to brow beat my husband into a mini-vacation during Spring Break. The kids were free. The husband had some vacation to burn. But really, we didn’t want to push too much into the short time we had. That’s why we went to the old standby…Gatlinburg, TN.

When I was discussing with Kate that my goal was to pay cash for as much of the vacation as possible, and that I’d found such a great deal online, she asked me to guest blog about it. So here’s what we did. … "How to take a real vacation on a tight budget" continues >

I’ve got a friend who recently took a vacation. She is going through some of the same financial issues I’m going through these days–working to pay down debt, working to make it through her day to day life by paying cash for things instead of incurring even more debt.

When she was telling me about her fun (and affordable) vacation, I convinced her to write me a blog post about it. She’s a great friend and she said yes without any hesitation at all. She’s one of those friends you can always count on to help you out and we discuss our financial situations regularly, because we trust each other. … "Talking vacations and support groups" continues >

Much of the advice available about designing a debt snowball program for your debt payoff plan revolves around only two main factors: interest rates and amount owed. These are excellent pieces of information to have when you’re laying out your plan, but they can’t be the only factors you take into consideration.

Why aren’t interest rates and amounts owed the most important factors?

First, interest rates and amounts owed do exclusively determine the amount of money you’ll ultimately be paying back. Time is a factor, but not in the same sense that interest rates and money owed are. … "Debt snowball payoff order: How to decide?" continues >

I have to say, nothing ever works out the way I plan it. I won’t say I’m unhappy that it didn’t, but I will say I spent more money on the truck than I’d planned. Here’s the rundown.

We traded in my car for $6,500 (which we had the cash to pay off (about $4400)). We got that trade-in credit against a $12,500 used truck that has about 39,000 miles and is in excellent condition. The reason I’m not all up in arms about the truck with my husband is because I can easily see it as something we can keep longer term, not to mention that we traded in my car for it instead of his. … "Bought a used truck" continues >

I’ve put off posting lately, because of the holidays and other financial issues. Like many people, I probably went overboard at Christmas. I had a budget but I went over. There have also been lots of other things going on in debt-land.

Here are the highlights

1. Spent too much at Christmas and used my Discover card which I intended to pay off in full. I’ll still be able to do that, but it took some serious finagling and a stroke to luck.
2. Intended to refinance my home loan to take advantage of lower interest rates and get 10,000 cash out to pay for a truck we need.
3. Refinanced home loan but got no cash out.
4. Put the family truck up for sale because it can’t haul my RV camper long distances.
5. Prepared tax return so I would know what, if any, cash I could expect to get refunded.
6. Looking for a truck and a way to pay for it that won’t put me back in debt up to my eyeballs.

… "Holiday roundup" continues >