Since I have a job now and our financial situation has loosened up a bit, we have a plan to become debt free in 3 years. That includes our student loans and car payment! I started a spreadsheet showing all of our expenses broken down into categories such as beauty, gas, rent, etc so that we could detemine where we were spending the majority of our money. It has been an eye opener! Even though you think you know what you are spending.....you really dont unless you have some way of keeping track-hence an Excel spreadsheet. We have been making extra payments on Jakes loans & will have them both paid off by December! Yay! But, the negative side to it is that my student loans begin in January-which was why we are so adiment about paying his off before then. So, in January we will be paying extra on both the car payment and my student loans. The sad part of the whole situation is the money you pay, but then seeing the payoff amont and while it seems like you've been paying on them for a while-the bill really only goes down a litte because of the interest! Yikes!
We are going to stop using our credit card and only use our debit card since it is taken out as it is being used-makes the spreadsheet easier! Eventually, it would be nice to make it down to cash only, but I dont see that happening any time in the near future. It's nice not to have to go to the ATM everytime you need cash-but I guess that is one way of not spending money.All this comes at a time when we are looking to purchase a house sometime next fall. We have already discussed what kind of house payment we would like to be making & the things that we would be looking for-when we actually start seriously looking in the spring.
If anyone has any tips on buying a house, becoming debt free, etc we could sure use the help! You might as well call us Dave Ramseys protocols! haha
3 comments:
Roxanne,
I saw your blog post on facebook, and this is the first post I've read of yours. We just started Dave Ramsey (loosely) about 2 months ago. I'm a part of this web group that is based on all his principles. These women are a great bunch of help if you have any questions, or want someone else with more experience to review your budget. I know its a mom and baby site, but there are plenty of non-moms in this group! Hope this helps you on your path!
Elly Hall (formerly Salazar)
http://community.babycenter.com/groups/a48205/were_debt_free
I will definately be checking it out! Thanks for the website Elly!
We have just began this journey also! :) How have you guys been!?
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