So we have been going strong for a little over 2 months now and as of today we have paid off $3,543.95 in debt! While that is only a little of what we have it is still progress. To think before we were only incurring debt.
Some things we have learned.
1. It is much easier for me to save my allowance than for D to. And much easier for D to spend his allowance than it is for me to spend mine! Remember our allowance is to spend.
2. We had to start to see momentum to continue on the plan. At first I had all our debt organized in order of higher APR, but that meant some of our bigger balances were 1st. We would still be working on paying off our 1st one right now, whereas we have paid off 3 different debts already. And snowballed the other amounts we were paying to take out more faster. Man seeing success makes you want to tackle more. Since I see our finance stuff daily and D doesn't I have tried really hard to share the excitement with him by telling him how far we have gotten.
3. Tithing.........we still do it, every paycheck that is the 1st thing that happens. I have seen God handing us other things (knowledge, growth, sources of income) as we have been obedient in doing this. And I feel that without this we really won't be where we are in our spending diet. The obedience to give 1st makes all the other stuff so much easier. This money is a gift from Him and I can't wait until we get out of this hole so we can start giving above!
4. If you think you are both going to understand it the 1st day you start you are WRONG! You both look at $ different. D is much more of a reward person, he sees the chance to get something new and works toward it. I have a hard time with that I would rather stick the $ in my pocket.....but then one day blow it all with little to show.
5. You really can stick to a grocery budget! I mean it is possible to even spend less than you budget. Yes I clip coupons but that is only a few bucks. The main thing is making a menu, a list and using our emeals menu. I will be honest I don't get generic if we don't like it, some stuff we like and that is fine. But why should we eat something we don't like b/c it's 10 cents cheaper?
I really think anyone can do this, if you feel like your life is out of control grab ahold of it and change.
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Our 2013 Spending Diet
One amazing thing about marriage is that you now have to combine the way 2 people spend into 1 lifestyle. And you also have to combine the debt of 2 people into 1. Which in our case doubled our debit, for D and I our main debt is my house and his school. Surprisingly we both brought in almost equal amounts of debt. But to be honest to look at the number on the excel sheet I have made makes me want to puke! So after a few months of living life the way we usually do and seeing only small amounts drop off the bottom line I purposed to D that we go on a spending diet for 2013. He totally agreed!
As all of this is in my head I wanted to put it out for the world to see. Here are things we are doing.
1. We want to pay off as much debt as we can this year.
2. We have given each other a $100 allowance each month, this $ can be spent on anything or saved up. We are both gift givers and social people so this is where this money will come into play the most.
3. We will not eat out, go to coffee or the movies unless we have a gift card to use, are using some of our monthly allowance or someone else is paying. We have talked through some strategies for this since we enjoying going out and having fun with friends, for example we might share a meal, have water instead of soda and bring a coupon!
4. We won't be buying new clothes unless we NEED them, which means we need a smaller size, we have a gift card or use our allowance. Here is a great read on weather or not to justify the expense.
5. We also will live this year with a WANT/NEED motto.
6. We will continue to tithe to our church, when times get though in the past this has seemed like the easiest thing to cut. But in all honesty everything we have is God's and he has given us so much. So to give back 10% really isn't much. It's the first thing we will do each paycheck, and we are excited to continue giving.
I'm excited to see where this will put us at the beginning of 2014, I really feel like now is the time to do it. Compared to wanting until kids are in the picture and we have no savings to send them to school or pay for a wedding. We both feel strongly that we want to provide for our kids and not have to work until we die. We both want to travel and enjoy the things around us, but we both know we can't do it without $ and being in debt is no way to move forward.
So here is to a future of debt free living and as Dave Ramsey says...“Live like no one else now so later you can live like no one else.”
As all of this is in my head I wanted to put it out for the world to see. Here are things we are doing.
1. We want to pay off as much debt as we can this year.
2. We have given each other a $100 allowance each month, this $ can be spent on anything or saved up. We are both gift givers and social people so this is where this money will come into play the most.
3. We will not eat out, go to coffee or the movies unless we have a gift card to use, are using some of our monthly allowance or someone else is paying. We have talked through some strategies for this since we enjoying going out and having fun with friends, for example we might share a meal, have water instead of soda and bring a coupon!
4. We won't be buying new clothes unless we NEED them, which means we need a smaller size, we have a gift card or use our allowance. Here is a great read on weather or not to justify the expense.
5. We also will live this year with a WANT/NEED motto.
6. We will continue to tithe to our church, when times get though in the past this has seemed like the easiest thing to cut. But in all honesty everything we have is God's and he has given us so much. So to give back 10% really isn't much. It's the first thing we will do each paycheck, and we are excited to continue giving.
I'm excited to see where this will put us at the beginning of 2014, I really feel like now is the time to do it. Compared to wanting until kids are in the picture and we have no savings to send them to school or pay for a wedding. We both feel strongly that we want to provide for our kids and not have to work until we die. We both want to travel and enjoy the things around us, but we both know we can't do it without $ and being in debt is no way to move forward.
So here is to a future of debt free living and as Dave Ramsey says...“Live like no one else now so later you can live like no one else.”
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