Friday, May 25, 2007

America's Cheapest Family

I found this book, America's Cheapest Family, at the library and read it in one day. I HIGHLY recommend it for anyone who thinks there is no way to cut costs and start getting out of debt. I found so much of this book to be helpful in getting my mind set to tackle more cost-cutting efforts. I've already gone through our 2006 spending to see what our pattern has been, and I've made a proposed budget for spending less the rest of this year!

Monday, May 21, 2007

$350 to credit card!!

I put $350 to the credit card, and it felt GREAT!! I start a new tutoring gig in June, and I'm looking forward to adding that amount to the debt snowball.

:-)

Monday, May 14, 2007

Being Honest with Yourself

Are you being honest with yourself about your financial situation? Money matters are like weight issues. We tell ourselves we don't know why we can't lose weight as we take a bite of a BigMac. We say we can't find a way to cut expenses to save money while driving a leased SUV that gets 12 mpg.

We can tell ourselves all the things we want to just to make ourselves feel better right now. But, the true question is this: If your family lost its primary source of income tomorrow, how secure would you be? Could you pay the mortgage? Phone bill? etc. Most of us are only one financial catastrophe away from real trouble. And, the only way to change that is to take control and do something to pay off and OWN our cars, home, etc.

Friday, May 4, 2007

Payment Plans

I was playing around on the internet recently, and I came across some online schools for getting trained in real estate. I'm a curious person, so I requested a free catalog (not that I'm going to dive into real estate school or anything, just curious).

I was contacted by someone who wanted to answer my questions and help me get started. (I figured I'd ask questions). She explained what I wanted to know, and she explained the course "packages" available. When I asked her if I could sign up for one course at a time (thinking I could pay for one course up front, then while working on it, save for the next course and so on) she asked me, "Why would you want to do that?" She explained that they had their own financing department that could allow me to pay around $50 per month until I paid off the debt.

I'm not saying this is a horrible idea, I'm just saying it says something about the status of the world we live in that paying up front for things one at a time would be considered the odd thing to do. We live in a time in which it is ingrained in our minds that we purchase things on a payment plan.

Something to think about.

:-)

Thursday, May 3, 2007

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

$300 to CC

Yes, another $300 payment to the good old credit card!! I am so excited to be whittling away at that debt, then closing that account. I can feel the momentum building as I knock out bills one by one.

BTW, our electric bill went from $450 in March to $150 in April after I started checking the meter each day and determining just how much electricity we NEEDED to consume and what we didn't.

:-)