Back in Debt

Well all of my plans have gone awash. Our debt soared because of income taxes due and paying for our daughter's college. The thing is that now that our debt has gone back up. Not to give up hope.
I guess $10 thousand isn't as bad as $40 thousand

Debt free or Tutoring and Taxes?

I have to revamp my plan for 2009. My daughter is failing math so I had to get her a tutor. I took her to Sylvan Center because they guarantee results , however you do have to pay a high price for it. When my husband find out that I am paying them $672 a month he was not happy. I don't know what else I can do to help my daughter. I was always able to help my 2 older daughters when they were having math problems, but I have not been able to make a difference in this daughter. I told my husband that it wouldn't make any sense putting away $500 a month for her college and she's failing math. I pray that this works.
Another reason why being debt-free is on hold is because of taxes. My husband made alot of extra money last year and I think the government is going to hit us very hard with taxes. So any money that I would be putting toward our last debt has to go in savings to pay taxes in April. If things turn out better than I hope and we don't owe thousands of dollars I can use it to pay off our Capital One Card. Then we would be debt-free.

Loan-free

We paid off our final loan. I had the money already to pay it off, however I was waiting for another check from some additional work my husband did for a Clinic, it hasn't arrived so I went ahead and paid the loan off with some of my Christmas money. I wanted it gone before Thanksgiving. We started out with a balance of over $5000 last year. If we would of stuck to their repayment plan it would not have been paid of until 2013 paying $129 monthly at 13.99%. We are almost debt-free, but now that the holidays are coming I know I will spend money (cash only). So I don't think we will have that $3000 paid off by Christmas. So I have set a goal of Jan 31, 2009. Which is still ahead of my previous goal of Sept 2010. I just didn't think we would go so fast wiping our debt out.

Another one bites the dust!

Today we celebrated paying off another credit card. It was our Military Star Card which we got in 1994. We were living in Colorado and my husband promise to get me a computer. Well we didn't have enough cash to get the whole system so we applied for a credit card to cover the rest. The credit limit then was $1800, it has mushroomed to $8600. Our balance was up to $6000. But as of today it is $0. Our family toasted with coke at dinner. One step closer.Yea.

We Are Now the Masters of Mastercard

Things have turn out better than expected. We have paid off my Elan Mastercard. My husband really has moved up to gazelle intensity. The debt is dropping really fast. The weird thing that gets me is that each time we pay off a bill I look at the existing debt and still feel as though we have a long way to go. We have a little over $13,000 to go which is definetly better than when we started with $40,000. I guess because I want to be debt-free I won't be happy until it says $0.

What would we do without Ebay?

Thanks goodness for ebay, although we did not have the money from our regular pay period to put into our snowball we were able to make an extra $800 payment because my husband sold some items on ebay. I really never thought we would lessen our debt by more than half in a year. I guess that is were focus, faith, and God comes in.
For those of you out there that are just beginning hang in there, you can make steps to becoming debt-free. My husband and I are getting close to the top of those stairs.

Our Household Expenses Are Getting Too High

As I was working on our budget everything seems to be more than I budgeted for. The utilities are higher. School lunches have increased too. My husband asked how much extra could pay on our balloon payment this pay period I had to tell him nothing. Everything seemed like it went up an extra 50 to 100 dollars. I know that we can schedule a balloon payment next period. We have really try hard to cut our household expenses and see where we can cut back if possible. These expenses are just our regular household bills, no eating out or shopping sprees. My husband said that he was talking to some friends and their power bill had went up by $100 too.

Not On Hold Anymore

Everything had been on hold for us for awhile because we were dealing with our daughter's college cost. We paid for her to take summer classes, then we had to save as hard as we could so we could be prepare to paid for her fall semester. Well she applied for scholarship's and a Resident Assistant position (which would cover room & board fees) she got both so the money we saved for tuition paid off Wachovia. We are pass the half way point for getting out of debt. It feels great. Wachovia $ 7,220 Nov.14,07 - Aug 19,08

Our Rebate Check

I've been checking my bank everyday waiting for stimilus check. My husband and I decided to put it on our Wachovia CC. I wish I could do something else with it, but as long as we have debt we don't have a life.
Getting into debt is so easy but getting out is really hard work. I'm am so ready to be free. When I listen to Dave Ramsey show I know it can be done if I stay focus.
Can you believe that Wachovia has increased our limit from $8100 to $8600. I told my husband if they can increase our limit they should lower our interest rate. Hopefully he will call today. So far we haven't had any luck getting CC to lower interest.

Feed the pig!

Have you seen the new commercials aim at getting Americans to save? I love the one where the guy wants to purchase a new t.v. and the pig slaps his hand before he shakes on the deal.(www.feedthepig.org)
Somehow as Americans we have gotten away from saving money. We have a -1% savings rate. We don't think about when a rainy day comes, we think we can put it on our credit cards. Credit cards are not saved money.
Remember to make a wise choice with the rebate you will receive in May. What will your choice be? If you don't save it at least put it on a debt.