The accomplishments/what are you proud of thread inspired me to start this one.
Money is the only reason we are still TTA currently. I ran the numbers and while we technically could afford a kid right now, it would be too tight for comfort with no wiggle room if something ever came up. I am very cheap frugal, and hate parting with my $$$. DH likes to make it rain. (I exaggerate but he is much freer/doesn't mind using credit to purchase etc.) We have A LOT of debt - a mix of vehicle loans, CCs, LOC, and student loans. I've heard of the snowball method but it always seems our extra money gets spent on on random crap, luxuries for the kids (which is ok every once in a while), or random crap DH's ex-wife asks for.
We are in the process of selling our house, but in the meantime talk to me about how you budget/paid off your debt!!!
We put a standard payment on our card, and have a savings account on the side. Example: we put $1000 toward our debt every month and $500 into savings. That money is off limits, except for emergencies, until it matches or goes over the amount of our debt. Then we pay it off.
Probably not the most efficient system, but it works for us.
We borrowed some money to pay the closing costs after we bought a house. I had the down payment in my account, but closing costs sorta snuck up on us. I was okay with accepting the money, but I wanted it paid off immediately.
I looked at our finances. I subtracted out bills and groceries for each month. Then I looked at what was left over. I fooled with the numbers a bit so that we could aggressively save but still have money to buy things. I finally settled on an amount to be removed from our paychecks each month that was far more than we were saving at the time, but not so much that was unlivable. In this situation, we saved up the money we needed to repay the debt in ~ 8 months. We never missed a savings "payment" and took it very seriously.
I'm really serious about money, though. I have always lived within my means. Bills, groceries and savings always come out of my paycheck first and I've lived on a strict budget since I moved out on my own. I will not buy something that I don't have the money to pay for that day (except for that pesky house purchase).
EDIT: If something very expensive came up when I was younger, I would pay for it and then aggressively save to pay off that debt as soon as possible. I was lucky in that I never got in a position where things spiraled. I totally understand how it can, though, if you have medical bills or a car accident, etc. All you can do is pay for what you need at that moment and save as best you can going forward. I've found the best way to be good at savings/pay off debt is to pick a budget and stick with it to the bitter end.
Post by ♪♫choppinbroccoli♫♪ on Sept 15, 2015 15:35:04 GMT -5
This is my experience. It doesn't mean that it is the experience, or that a different one wouldn't work better for someone else.
We follow the Dave Ramsey method for the most part. We saved up an emergency fund of 6 months worth of expenses. After that, we started paying off our debts, smallest to largest. Now we basically pay for everything by cash. I have a Discover card for the rewards program, but I pay it off every month. I know there is a theory that you spend more if you use plastic (whether it be credit card or debit card), but I love the convenience too much to part with it. However, we have started using DR's EveryDollar LINK. We also have gotten to the point where we can put 15% towards our retirement.
Above all else, though, we had to both be committed. It just doesn't work if one or the other is not in it 100%.
We use mint to track our budget and it really helped with paying off a credit card from undergrad. Now that that card is paid off, I make sure I can pay the card off in full at the end of the month. We've had some things pop up lately, but we still have money in savings to deal with those things or had planned them out in advance.
Our budget has things written out specifically for each bill and then groceries, gas, and some fun money. Everything else goes in savings. We even have budgets for paying into the savings accounts.
Edit: We're also participating in our work's 401k program while we're paying off everything else. We're also working on H's student loans.
Our system is similar to Rama's now that we're down to just the car and student loan payments, but when we were aggressively paying down CCs we started by putting an extra amount (for example, $200) into a separate checking account immediately after we got paid. We'd hold it there until the pay period was over, then use it (and anything left in the main checking account) to make a bigger payment on one of our debts. That way, if we had a small unanticipated expense (bigger power bill than usual, minor car repair, minor house stuff) we could still get that money "back" if we needed it.
The key for us was putting the money somewhere more difficult to touch BEFORE we did any other spending from that paycheck.
Another good idea - if you get paid bi-weekly (or just get paid twice a month) pay your credit card minimum twice. Or split it roughly in half and pay half at each paycheck. If you do the bi-weekly pay of half the minimum, you technically make an extra payment every year.
Also any "bonus" money that comes our way (tax returns, my annual performance bonus, occasional monetary gifts from grandparents) goes straight to debt payments.
The accomplishments/what are you proud of thread inspired me to start this one.
Money is the only reason we are still TTA currently. I ran the numbers and while we technically could afford a kid right now, it would be too tight for comfort with no wiggle room if something ever came up. I am very cheap frugal, and hate parting with my $$$. DH likes to make it rain. (I exaggerate but he is much freer/doesn't mind using credit to purchase etc.) We have A LOT of debt - a mix of vehicle loans, CCs, LOC, and student loans. I've heard of the snowball method but it always seems our extra money gets spent on on random crap, luxuries for the kids (which is ok every once in a while), or random crap DH's ex-wife asks for.
We are in the process of selling our house, but in the meantime talk to me about how you budget/paid off your debt!!!
Post by txmommy14 on Sept 15, 2015 15:45:28 GMT -5
Ray, We have a budget spreadsheet that we just created on Excel a long time ago. We have tabs at the bottom for each month. The month before, we allocate our money for the month depending on that month's situations (we might have more birthdays or showers to go to and need more in our gift budget for one month), general categories like miscellaneous, eating out, gasoline, etc. usually stay the same. So we have a long list that's broken down pretty specifically with stuff like Groceries, Restaurants, Miscellaneous, Target/Walmart (yes we have a catch all category for that), Boomer care (our dog), clothing, gifts, tithe to church, mortgage, phone bill, electricity, the list goes on. Then, we also have a list of "Funds"-basically separate savings accounts that all go into one savings account (but we separate it all out on our spreadsheet to stay motivated). Each month, we budget money for all of our categories, and then for our savings categories, too. Savings categories are things such as home fund, car fund (maintenance), medical fund, emergencies, etc. We also do separate accounts for special things that come up. We track each and every purchase every Sunday. It sounds CRAZY, but we have a system down and can do it in like 15 minutes. DH pulls up the spreadsheet, I pull up our bank account. I list things out (example: "15 restaurants, 95 groceries, 35 gasoline") and he enters them in. If we go to Target, I have the receipt saved and break it out by category. This has enabled us to know where our money is going every month. We don't sweat it if we go over in one category because we can visually see we went way over in another category. We also allocate "fun money" to just each do whatever we want.
We also use the money we make in a given month for the following month. So, all August paychecks aren't touched until September. You have to find a way to get a month ahead of yourself just one time to make this happen, but it's so worth it. I just quit my job in June, and got my last paycheck in August, but we aren't living off of one income for the first time until next month because we are using our August money right now.
We do our budget for the next month on the last day of the month. So at the end of September, we will set up October's budget. At that point, we immediately transfer all money going into our different savings funds into that savings accounts. We pull from it during the month as things come up (like my husband just had to get new tires the other day, but we had money set aside in our car fund so it was no big deal and didn't impact our monthly budget at all). Even if you can only put a few dollars towards each category per month (what we did when we got married and were still in college), it's totally worth it to be workings towards goals. When we have something huge we are workings towards, we just make lots of sacrifices and throw tons of money at the debt. If we get rid of it right away, it's not that big of a deal having it gone because we aren't used to getting to spend it.
Sorry that was so long. It's really easy but sounds complicated. Thankfully, DH and I are on the same page and it's not something we freak out about-if anything, it has enabled us to be more relaxed with our money because we constantly know exactly where we are at. We still put things on credit cards, but only for the rewards, we pay the credit card off each week when we do our budget.
I feel embarrassed typing all that out-it sounds so crazy! But, like I said in the last thread, it enabled us to pay off 56k in student loans and about 25k worth of car debt, and I was making a lower range teacher salary and my husband not much more than that, so it's not like we were rolling in the dough. We're living on half of that now, and I think we'll be okay, I'm just sad to not get to save tons of money!
DH and I were JUST talking about all of this today and making a plan for our remaining debts. (Cars, student loans, and mortgage)
We do the snowball method as well- working towards paying off our smaller debts first so that we can make larger payments on things like student loans.
I keep a pretty detailed spreadsheet of what exactly we spend each month, and this has helped cut down on spending quite a bit. We also make sure any money we want in savings, retirement, or towards debts is direct deposited right into those accounts- if it never hits our checking account then we can't spend it.
Post by txmommy14 on Sept 15, 2015 15:48:01 GMT -5
pismoduo, I agree about any "extra" money going towards debt. We always put tax returns, bonus money my DH used to get at his old job (no bonuses anymore) towards debt. Kind of depressing when it's tempting to do something fun with the money, but worth it in the end.
Post by mustloveerica on Sept 15, 2015 15:50:02 GMT -5
We did the snowball plan. I paid off one student loan, rolled that money into the next and then the next, then into my credit car balance, and just last month I paid off my two year old car. Now we are working on DHs loans and eventually the house. My goal was to be debt free before 30. Excluding DHs loans and our mortgage I have succeed. I now have zero student loans, no credit card debt and not car payment. We were also very careful about the house we bought. We could have afforded a much more expensive house but we chose to buy a fixer upper in a great neighborhood. Doing so we have the money to spare to do small projects here and there and one or two large projects a year (our kitchen is being demolished as I type). We also paid careful attention to buy cars, house, etc that we can afford when we have children so that I can stay home.
Now that we are doing IF treatments I am able to put all of the money I have been putting into loans every month into IF. It makes me feel not guilty about 100% OOP IF treatments and we are not at all dipping into our savings so far.
Being debt free feels amazing. It's hard work getting there but once you settle into a routine you won't even miss the extra money you put into paying thing down.
Post by requiressnacks on Sept 15, 2015 15:51:53 GMT -5
We focused primarily on CC Debt because that was the most out of control. Basically for the last year, every extra penny that we have was going to the CC Debt. I am not contributing to savings (aside from 401k) and we barely keep anything in our checking account. We are straight up paycheck to paycheck because of the CC payments I've been making.
Oh, and we consolidated it all onto one card at a low interest rate. The interest rate expires in 18 months so that was even more incentive to get it paid off. It helped having it all in one place.
ETA: And for the record - it's been scary and it hasn't been easy. For two people who make pretty decent salaries, we barely have any money in a savings account. (aside from retirement)
Post by goldenlove3 on Sept 15, 2015 15:51:53 GMT -5
We basically followed Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover" plan. He wants you to treat debt like it's the worst thing in the world and just attack it. We didn't have to go "rice and beans" but we paid off multiple credit cards, two student loans and 2 car payments within a couple years.
We also create a budget every month and make sure every dollar has a place. It's amazing what you spend your money on without even realizing it. Seeing it written down helps a lot.
We basically followed Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover" plan. He wants you to treat debt like it's the worst thing in the world and just attack it. We didn't have to go "rice and beans" but we paid off multiple credit cards, two student loans and 2 car payments within a couple years.
We also create a budget every month and make sure every dollar has a place. It's amazing what you spend your money on without even realizing it. Seeing it written down helps a lot.
YES. It truly does. I was appalled at how much money we were spending on going out to eat. I mean, whoa, it really did take writing it out to convince myself that it was a problem.
Post by butlerfan on Sept 15, 2015 15:57:05 GMT -5
We are working on paying off things that the last 2-3 years did us in on. I got let go from a job and my ex-boss accused me of things I didn't do so I needed a lawyer and was unemployed and it took me forever to get a new job because of it. That hurt us and set us back a lot. We had car payments but those are paid off and I still have my student loans. We put more than I like on credit cards than I like (I pay off every month) but we are working on getting those done with finally. We aren't exactly where I like us to be yet but considering what all happened we aren't too bad off.
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I guess that I'm really lucky that DH and I are both savers but we paid off his student loans in our first year of marriage. We downloaded our bank transactions and categorized them to create our initial budget and put every extra cent towards Aunt Sallie. We set an amount in our savings account and everything over it + extra money went to Sallie on a biweekly basis. We made a spreadsheet and tracked the balance going down and out anticipated pay off date changed as we found extra money. (Ex October is a 5 week month so DH gets 3 pay checks instead of 2, one would go to Sallie before we saw it)
Now we are on the other side and calculate our net worth going up every month which is pretty exciting. We keep putting the Sallie money in savings and use it to fund our retirement, investing, and hopefully a down payment for my next car. We still keep an estimated payoff spreadsheet for our mortgage but we don't feel like it needs to get paid off fast.
We basically followed Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover" plan. He wants you to treat debt like it's the worst thing in the world and just attack it. We didn't have to go "rice and beans" but we paid off multiple credit cards, two student loans and 2 car payments within a couple years.
We also create a budget every month and make sure every dollar has a place. It's amazing what you spend your money on without even realizing it. Seeing it written down helps a lot.
YES. It truly does. I was appalled at how much money we were spending on going out to eat. I mean, whoa, it really did take writing it out to convince myself that it was a problem.
Us too! So much money went to food. It was ridiculous!
Post by notagoddess on Sept 15, 2015 16:01:40 GMT -5
How much do you all spend on groceries and outside food? We need to tighten up our budget and that seems to be the main area where there's room to cut down.
Right now we spend about $150/week on groceries. DH buys lunch at work about 4 days a week. I buy coffee and a snack 2 days a week (so I can work at the coffee shop and not lose my mind being at home all day). We go out to eat together about once every week or two. All in all it's about $800/month, which seems extremely high, but maybe it's normal.
Any advice? I've been asking DH to pack lunch instead of buying it, but he gets upset since he doesn't spend much money in general and buying lunch with coworkers is a big part of his social life right now.
We started following Dave Ramsey when we got married. Currently, we only have debt in our house. We owe my parents for helping with the down payment (interest free) and our mortgage. Every month we put as much as we can toward the loan from my parents. When that's finished we'll put that extra towards the house.
We budget every dollar we spent and record our spending in iBank. We've found that saving every receipt and entering it in our computer program has really helped us to know what we're spending. Car payments can really drag you down. We make a point to save money each month for our next car replacement. My DH and I both drive 2011 vehicles that we paid cash for when we bought them. I'd consider selling your cars and getting something cheap while saving money for a nicer car.
How much do you all spend on groceries and outside food? We need to tighten up our budget and that seems to be the main area where there's room to cut down.
Right now we spend about $150/week on groceries. DH buys lunch at work about 4 days a week. I buy coffee and a snack 2 days a week (so I can work at the coffee shop and not lose my mind being at home all day). We go out to eat together about once every week or two. All in all it's about $800/month, which seems extremely high, but maybe it's normal.
Any advice? I've been asking DH to pack lunch instead of buying it, but he gets upset since he doesn't spend much money in general and buying lunch with coworkers is a big part of his social life right now.
We have a strict $50 per week plus one $100 per month Costco trip grocery budget. We buy groceries with cash so that we don't go over budget. I also coupon as much as possible.
We each go to lunch with coworkers once a week ($20 each or so) and go out together once on the weekend (call it $70 if we drink). We rarely get coffee or breakfast.
So that puts us at like $185? Call it $200 a week. $800 seems like a lot but it would depend where you live. $20 is even a lot for lunch around here.
ETA: I will also say that to keep our grocery budget that low means we go to three different grocery stores every week. Aldi for generic boxed goods, Marc's for stuff we would rather have name brand, Giant Eagle for produce and meat. Plus a monthly Costco trip. So it's. Lot more work for a low budget.
How much do you all spend on groceries and outside food? We need to tighten up our budget and that seems to be the main area where there's room to cut down.
Right now we spend about $150/week on groceries. DH buys lunch at work about 4 days a week. I buy coffee and a snack 2 days a week (so I can work at the coffee shop and not lose my mind being at home all day). We go out to eat together about once every week or two. All in all it's about $800/month, which seems extremely high, but maybe it's normal.
Any advice? I've been asking DH to pack lunch instead of buying it, but he gets upset since he doesn't spend much money in general and buying lunch with coworkers is a big part of his social life right now.
We spend between $100-$150/week on groceries and go out to one dinner per week and usually one takeout dinner per week. (for my sanity!) We both pack our lunches/breakfasts daily. We probably spend in the same ballpark as you.
How much do you all spend on groceries and outside food? We need to tighten up our budget and that seems to be the main area where there's room to cut down.
Right now we spend about $150/week on groceries. DH buys lunch at work about 4 days a week. I buy coffee and a snack 2 days a week (so I can work at the coffee shop and not lose my mind being at home all day). We go out to eat together about once every week or two. All in all it's about $800/month, which seems extremely high, but maybe it's normal.
Any advice? I've been asking DH to pack lunch instead of buying it, but he gets upset since he doesn't spend much money in general and buying lunch with coworkers is a big part of his social life right now.
We have a strict $50 per week plus one $100 per month Costco trip grocery budget. We buy groceries with cash so that we don't go over budget. I also coupon as much as possible.
We each go to lunch with coworkers once a week ($20 each or so) and go out together once on the weekend (call it $70 if we drink). We rarely get coffee or breakfast.
So that puts us at like $185? Call it $200 a week. $800 seems like a lot but it would depend where you live. $20 is even a lot for lunch around here.
ETA: I will also say that to keep our grocery budget that low means we go to three different grocery stores every week. Aldi for generic boxed goods, Marc's for stuff we would rather have name brand, Giant Eagle for produce and meat. Plus a monthly Costco trip. So it's. Lot more work for a low budget.
Thanks, the breakdown is useful.
I think our problem is buying a lot of premium items: fish, nuts, berries, nice coffee, fancy bread. We also just shop at one store weekly because of convenience.
There's no Costco where I live now. I really miss it!
How much do you all spend on groceries and outside food? We need to tighten up our budget and that seems to be the main area where there's room to cut down.
Right now we spend about $150/week on groceries. DH buys lunch at work about 4 days a week. I buy coffee and a snack 2 days a week (so I can work at the coffee shop and not lose my mind being at home all day). We go out to eat together about once every week or two. All in all it's about $800/month, which seems extremely high, but maybe it's normal.
Any advice? I've been asking DH to pack lunch instead of buying it, but he gets upset since he doesn't spend much money in general and buying lunch with coworkers is a big part of his social life right now.
Groceries? $160 for two weeks. There are two adults in my house. I only buy food that we will eat within two weeks. I can be very immune to "oh, that's look good!!!" My husband thinks I'm too cuththroat. Haha.
This covers some dinners, basic shared toiletries (toilet paper, mouth wash), lunches every day, and breakfast for me (husband doesn't eat breakfast). I keep "quick" dinner things around to fill in the holes (like burgers for the grill, pasta and sauce, soups). Individual toiletries (shampoos, conditioners, body washes, hair gels, etc) as well as take out/dinners out comes from our fun money.
How much do you all spend on groceries and outside food? We need to tighten up our budget and that seems to be the main area where there's room to cut down.
Right now we spend about $150/week on groceries. DH buys lunch at work about 4 days a week. I buy coffee and a snack 2 days a week (so I can work at the coffee shop and not lose my mind being at home all day). We go out to eat together about once every week or two. All in all it's about $800/month, which seems extremely high, but maybe it's normal.
Any advice? I've been asking DH to pack lunch instead of buying it, but he gets upset since he doesn't spend much money in general and buying lunch with coworkers is a big part of his social life right now.
We're spending about $125/week on groceries (if you exclude the dog's "groceries").
But we eat lunch out together pretty much every day, and that's adding up to $80 - $100 per week. It's one thing we could definitely cut back on if we needed to, but right now it works for us and we're still able to meet our goals, so we still do it. We try to cut down on our dinners out to compensate, but we still usually end up picking up takeout once a week, or sometimes we'll go out somewhere nice together.
One way that I've cut back on our grocery bill in the past is to get less pre-made/packaged stuff, buy in bulk, and pre-cook meals.
The accomplishments/what are you proud of thread inspired me to start this one.
Money is the only reason we are still TTA currently. I ran the numbers and while we technically could afford a kid right now, it would be too tight for comfort with no wiggle room if something ever came up. I am very cheap frugal, and hate parting with my $$$. DH likes to make it rain. (I exaggerate but he is much freer/doesn't mind using credit to purchase etc.) We have A LOT of debt - a mix of vehicle loans, CCs, LOC, and student loans. I've heard of the snowball method but it always seems our extra money gets spent on on random crap, luxuries for the kids (which is ok every once in a while), or random crap DH's ex-wife asks for.
We are in the process of selling our house, but in the meantime talk to me about how you budget/paid off your debt!!!
Can you budget for this?
I think this is really what needs to happen. And I think doing it in cash would help. For ex, budget x$ for "extra" crap, withdraw that money in cash, and once it's gone, it's gone. Then any remaining $$ gets put towards debt payment. Consolidating is also sounding like a good idea.
How much do you all spend on groceries and outside food? We need to tighten up our budget and that seems to be the main area where there's room to cut down.
Right now we spend about $150/week on groceries. DH buys lunch at work about 4 days a week. I buy coffee and a snack 2 days a week (so I can work at the coffee shop and not lose my mind being at home all day). We go out to eat together about once every week or two. All in all it's about $800/month, which seems extremely high, but maybe it's normal.
Any advice? I've been asking DH to pack lunch instead of buying it, but he gets upset since he doesn't spend much money in general and buying lunch with coworkers is a big part of his social life right now.
I would need to look specifically. I wouldn't be surprised if it was up there too. Eating out generally tends to be coffee/snacks after hockey practices and a couple meals out because of travelling for hockey but I'm sure we could plan better and save.
Post by thelittleredm on Sept 15, 2015 17:05:39 GMT -5
We do the snowball thing. It's hard for us to stick to so we made the focus going from most important to least important. My student loans get a set amount each month that is above the minimum (generally 2× the minimum) and the rest get at least the minimum. Once my loans are paid off, that monthly sum will pay off the credit cards. After that, it goes to any other loan that needs paying off. It works for us because our spending doesn't really differ much from month to month.
We use YNAB. It is a pain in the ass, you enter every cent you spend into the program; but we have slashed our debt in three months. We should be credit card debt free by the end of February (we accrued a ton of debt from the wedding & honeymoon) so we should be left with bills, and mortgage and one car payment.
Post by penguin129 on Sept 15, 2015 17:37:51 GMT -5
I use Mint to track our spending in our budget categories. That includes our monthly bills, gas, groceries, etc. I really like being able to see if we are in green, yellow, or red at the end of the month for each category. Whenever we get extra money like tax refunds or money for teaching (Lead money, etc) we use a portion to pay down debt and put a portion in savings. In June I made the final payment on my Consolidation loan and it felt so good to get the paid off letter in the mail. Currently we have one car payment, student loans, and 2 credit cards. The credit cards have balances below $200 and I am paying one of them off next month. We rent, so no mortgage to worry about. Our current goal is to save enough money to get an affordable reliable car (hopefully $3000 or less) for H so I can have my car back. We both want to avoid adding another car payment.
Post by penguin129 on Sept 15, 2015 17:40:55 GMT -5
notagoddess I usually have 2 shopping trips a month that are $80 and the weeks in between are around $50 give or take. I think we spend around $250/month on groceries for DH, DD, and I. Add another $50 in for toiletries etc. DD's diapers and wipes are in their own Kid's section. We don't eat out other than Little Ceasar's once or twice a month and when DH needs to get something on the way home from work. He really cut back on eating out now that he has a shorter commute and gets out of work earlier.
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