You are currently browsing the monthly archive for May, 2008.
Debt Snowball Update
Jen and I are working the debt snowball. We had paid off one credit card before developing our snowball, but we did not add that to the list of six creditors that when paid off, would set us debt free with the exception of the mortgage. Well, the lowest creditor received our payment of $1,250.00. The remaining balance of $1,126.15 is the current target. I cannot wait to get this company paid off. I want to taste the freedom of paid off technology. I want to make that phone call to cancel that account and then to focus on paying off CC#2.
Don’t buy it. Wait for your birthday. That’s what I did.
The family celebrated my birthday on Sunday. Rather than hunt for a Wii Fit, I asked and received. Same deal with Wii Mario Kart. Being a guy, I fall into and have enjoyed the hunt and kill of shopping. The Wii Fit was said to be selling out. I wanted one. I could have fallen into an old routine of driving around in search of one. If not today, then the search would resume the next time I had some time to spare. I could have done this with the Wii Fit. I have done it with other purchases in the past. The point is that I waited, asked, and learned.
Urban Hunting
I waited to receive as a gift. I learned to stop and in doing so, reviewed in my head a past enjoyment which is urban hunting. Planning which stores to search for the latest want. Lining up an alternative location if the item could not be found. Making small talk with sales clerks about product delivery days. Then……making the kill and stuffing it into my trunk then driving home…sometimes with buyers remorse. Not this item. I waited and received. As for the Wii Fit, the kids are having more fun with it than I am. Yea, I know the birthday comes only once a year, but if it’s close, wait to receive.
Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing – Teddy Roosevelt Speech in New York, September 7, 1903 – 26th president of US (1858 – 1919)
I had Columbus Day off a few months back. My wife had to teach and the kids were in school that day. I went to the local Barnes and Noble book store and found a Dave Ramsey journal in the finance section. Having found a chair near an open window overlooking other shops and people walking by, I came across this quote reading that that book and froze in thought. I am fortunate to be doing work worth doing. The work however; leads me to make purchases that I justify as work related and later write off as a work expense.
I don’t golf so I don’t justify a new club or golf shoes because the deal is made on the links. I listen to stories of people who believed that have been wronged. I take pictures of work they claim is poor or not completed. I justified a new digital camera for that. I drive to where the work took place and to where the other parties operate or live. I justified a new GPS device for the car. I am called to testify in court and can always justify new clothing for that. Hopefully soon the camera, the added lens, the GPS, and projector for the laptop will be paid off when CC#1 is clobbered. Yes, I did claim partial use as a business expense in the tax years, but I am still paying for them years later on credit.
I don’t have an answer to the dilemma other than to be reminded to recognize the excuses that I use to justify buying work related ‘tools’ using credit instead of cash. That is one tool that I need to leave debt end street.
That feels good. I have just completed a $1,250.00 payment towards the lowest credit card balance. We tripled the minimum payment then added $1,000.00 from the stimulus check provided by GW. That should knock the balance owed in half. Another 5 payments of $250.00 will have that debt paid off never to look back again to Dell to finance ANYTHING. My goal is to have the Dell account eliminated by the end of Summer and not settling on 5 months.
It has been almost 90 days since my wife and I began our Total Money Makeover. I have honestly lost some of the gazelle intensity, but worked from new learned behaviors and new skills of discipline. I read on another PF blog recently that a purchase of want should have a wait time factored in.
Here is the example. I have been itching to replace my 2-year old cell phone. The cell phone that I wanted would have cost me $200.00. I have taken on the discipline of placing 1 day of wait for every $10.00 of the wanted purchase. So, rather than spend the $200.00, I divided $200.00 by 10 which is 20. I then decided that I would wait 20 days before making the purchase. The 20 days have not finished yet and I have already come to the realization that I don’t need a new phone.
So far so good. Another help has been to read other PF (personal finance) blogs. I found a good one last night over at From Mike. This blogger is a young 30 something dad raising 2 girls. His posts are personal, open, and honest. He caught the Dave Ramsey gazelle intensity and has shared his short journey to this point. His recent post is raw and shows a back slide based in part on a couple of personal loses. His readers have commented to his post. The PF community is very supportive. Now on to a long Memorial Day weekend and a family budget meeting tomorrow before we leave the house.
We created one budget and have not had a budget meeting since then. We need one. I need one. Soon it will be three months since we started the Total Money Makeover. Our spending habits have changed, but the momentum is slowing. We have developed a list of all debt and listed those owed smallest to largest. We have six creditors. Including the car, we owe over 55K. No student loans to worry about. A couple of CONsolidation loans, a couple of Visa cards a car loan and a computer retailer line of credit. That’s it.
We have been making strides. Of recent, I grew old of listening to Dave Ramsey podcasts and have been listening to the tech podcasts more so. I need to get back on track. Spending is under control, but the will power is weakening. I have found a few really good PF (personal finance) blogs to read and that had helped.
Washing the dishes after dinner has been my chore since day one. I have always done the dishes. I washed plenty of dishes in my early 20’s and started a retirement account from doing that. Recently, I have been enjoying the satisfaction that many home cooks meals bring. Washing dishes knowing that we saved on average of $8.00 a person is great.
It is fun to eat out, but the last meal that we had was at Islands and it cost us $50.00. Tonight it was Sloppy Joes and homemade fries. Dishes are cleaned and floor is washed. Lights are out and we are relaxing in the family room. I stopped surfing for a new cell phone online to replace the 2-year-old phone that I use now and thought of checking in with the handful of people who stumble across these ramblings. Oh well, it is late and tomorrow is another day. Perhaps some Ramsey on the way to work. We’ll see. Oh, and the phone can wait. The one I have works well enough.
Jen and I love traveling to San Diego. We live 90 miles north towards Los Angeles. In the past, we have simply revisited the same hotels we have stayed in. Some good and some bad. For the first time, we decided to actually do some homework to save money. A side benefit to searching for the best price was reading recent reviews from others who have visited the hotels. I read the reviews with a skeptical perspective for two reasons.
First, how easy would it be for a bored hotel manager to leave a horrid review of a competing hotel. On the other hand, how easy would it be for a bored hotel staffer to leave a shiny review to boost business. Secondly, who has time to leave a good review? If you had a bad experience, you may be torked enough to leave a bad review. That said, we shopped hotels near my brother-in-law’s pad. His place is nice, but not big enough to accommodate the four of us.
It sounds silly. Like listening to your parents when they discover an obvious use of the web and share it with you as if you never used email to communicate or watched videos of your favorite group on YouTube. It sounds silly, but we never shopped for prices on hotel rooms. We just expected to pay a certain amount of money and take that along. It’s not like we travel every month. We actually do this perhaps a couple of times a year. Well, the obvious shared with you is that it pays to shop. It also pays to have a queen sized Aero Bed that we will take for my son and I to sleep on. The girls get the king sized bed. $
We made a payment to Dell last month that was triple the minimum payment. I received the bill for this month to find that Dell increased the credit limit by $1,000.00. I wonder if the good folks at Dell use this tactic of increasing credit when someone shows some stride in paying off extended credit. Well, we will see next month how much it changes when we make a $1,250.00 payment.
We will take $400.00 from the stimulus check and another $600.00 from an auto accident settlement along with the monthly payment we set at $250.00. I cannot wait to get this target eliminated and the account closed. I may never switch entirely from PC to MAC, but I will not buy a Dell on credit ever again. In other news, Dell’s CFO resigned today.
From the getting the most out of your dining dollar with a straw file. We do not eat meals out of the house much these days. When we do, we sort of expect a routine fun time without being pestered too much. Not today for this was Mother’s Day. My wife wanted to have lunch at Souplantation.
We arrive at Souplantation and of course the place is busy. This is a buffet style good eats type of joint where part of the experience is the ballet that you have to perform while dodging other patrons who also are up and down gathering food and drink then taking it back to their tables. So, we perform the food and drink ballet and get back to the table only there are two young kids at the adjoining table hanging over the table divider grabbing our cups and Jennifer’s purse.
The father has his back to us oblivious to what his two kids are doing. I tell the kids to sit down. When they do not, I sit down and take my straw and poke the dad in the back to get his attention. The kids did not like that. One of the kids narks on me to his dad. The dad does not turn around. The kids end up sitting down. We enjoyed our meal and Mother’s Day. Oh, my wife was not at the table to enjoy the straw jab or the pilfering of her purse. I told her when she returned from her ballet routine to get soup.
The family with the kids gets ready to leave. The mother has had it. For some reason she whollops one of the kids. Hard. And a Happy Mother’s Day to you mom. Overall, we had a great lunch spending $8.00 per person. Not bad when we had been averaging between $11.00 and $12.00 per person at other favorite eateries once or twice a week. Sorry Hun, I don’t mean to cheap out on the lunch, but the story had to be told and you chose the location.
Next Friday will be our last Financial Fitness class. During the past 8-weeks, we have created a budget. Most important is that we have discovered a new mindset of money. We came to terms with the total amount of debt we have. We developed a strategy of getting out of debt. Now the weekly class ends and we are accountable to ourselves and perhaps a monthly meeting with the class that will soon end.
Earlier this week we made our first snowball payment towards the CC with the lowest payment. Truth be told, we need to increase the payment much more than what we allocated. The bummer is that the CC payment was due on 5/4/2008. We made an electronic payment on 5/2/2008, but the payment will not post until 5/6/2008 and we will be charged a late fee of $39.00. Lesson learned.
Jennifer and I will use Friday nights to have the weekly budget meeting. We both agree that most of the money we spend that is not paid to monthly obligations is spent on the weekend. With a Friday night budget meeting, we will enter each weekend aware of and reminded of the goals set forth. We are on the way to debt freedom.
