Beautiful Life of Zig Zag Zoom

There are many people who live paycheck to paycheck and always wonder where there money goes. I have always been one to write down all my major monthly expenses each month. However, up till a few weeks ago, I never wrote down our dining out money, gas money, or any monthly left from paying the bills.

I am now a huge proponent of writing down everything. Karen and I have devised a budget that includes a weekly allowance for both of us, grocery money, eating out money, miscellaneous money, and gas and car expenses. With the exception of gas, which we pay at the pump with our debit cards, everything else is cash only. I carry an envelope for each kind of money and pull the right one out each time we need to purchase something. Dave Ramsey says it is harder to spend cash and he is right. It is much harder to part with money than with a debit card or credit card. Every dollar is earmarked and we try to stay with in our budget.

We are not perfect but we do seem to be more conscious of our money. We know how much we have and if we run out, we have to wait till the next payday. We both get paid bi-weekly so we fill the envelopes every two weeks. We do borrow back and forth but if we borrow from one envelope, we know that that category is short for the two weeks and we do not go and get more.

I am here to tell you that if you budget out every dollar before the month begins, you will have more money than you thought you had. Any excess goes straight for debt payoff. It also causes you to avoid high price stuff and look for the bargain in everything. No more value meals at McDonald’s, we go straight for the dollar menu. Drinks in diners are now water not the $1.50-$3.00 sodas. It takes some getting use to but we are working toward a long term get out of debt goal!

The key is for the whole family to be on board and stick to the plan. If the the plan is not discussed and agreed on by all, it will not work. Communication is key to successful money management and it makes a much healthier marriage.

Get on board and get a budget done. it will be the smartest decision you ever make!

We paid off our last credit card with a $1000 payment and now we owe no credit card companies. I took another step in reducing my monthly bills by calling my satellite provider and negotiated a $10 reduction for a year. They gave it to me since I have been with them a long time and have always paid my bill on time for over 14 years.

I am still working to get my income up by finding a better job. However, I am slowly working to reduce my out going. I would have totally wiped out my satellite except my 80 year old mother lives with us and she hardly gets out so this is her one vice.

I have also sold off a website to bring in a little money. Slowly but surely I am starting to build funds to whittle away the student loans to become debt free. If anyone has any other good ideas, please feel free to share.

I am glad to see that Dave Ramsey really does try to include all emails on his show. My wife sent an email a few nights ago and we assumed that it did not make it on the show that night so it would just get pushed aside. To my surprise, I was watching his show tonight on the Fox Business Network and at the end of his show, he read my wife’s email.

Karen was so excited but missed the show so now she is staying up till one in the morning so she can see the show. She is quite goofy that away. Dave has such common sense and approaches it in such a folksy down to earth way that he appeals to many and pisses off some too. I am just glad he was able to inspire Karen to jump on board the get out of debt wagon!

If you have not seen or heard of Dave Ramsey, I suggest you check out his website to see what he is all about. Better yet, tune into his radio or TV show to see him for yourself.

I have taken a big step in reducing my debt. I have looked over my expenses and chopped off a few I do not need. First to go was Netflix. I enjoyed the ease of having DVDs shipped to the house but we were not watching them very quickly. It was almost a crunch trying to find time to watch them. That reduction was $9.69 a month.

The next expense I worked on was that dreaded telephone bill. I reduced my Verizon Freedom package which was $49.99 a month to a regional package which cost $35 a month. We maybe make 100 minutes of long distance calls a month so I went with a long distance plan which cost 2.9 cents a minute. This is a reduction of around $14 a month.

These minor amounts may not seem like much but it adds up. You figure $23.96 a month adds up to $287.52 a year. That is an extra payment on our debt.

Now to the big things. We started the beginning of the month with a credit card balance of $4900. We took some from our saving and crimped for the rest and as of Friday the one and only credit card will be history. If I can find a reliable full time job, we should be able to crush and pay off our $49,000 student loans off in two years. This will take some sacrifice but in the long haul, we will be DEBT FREE except for the house! The home equity (we have no other mortgage) will be paid off in another year if all goes as planned.

For the first time, Karen is totally on board and as excited as I am to get all debt gone. I could not imagine how it will feel to owe no one. Of course, once that happens, we plan to buy a new house but not till we save enough to have a emergency plan in place and have a nice down payment.

Anybody else debt free or working hard on? Share your story by leaving a comment here!

What would be your ideal life? The one thing that leads to all roads is being debt free. You are limited if you spend your whole life living paycheck to paycheck while making someone else rich. My new goal is to end the cycle and become totally debt free.

As my core basis, I am taking the advice of money guru Dave Ramsey. I am in the midst of reading his book, The Total Money Makeover. I have always been good at handling my money but I have never been great. I have decided it is time to take on the mountain and win. My wife and I are fortunate in the sense that we have very little credit card debt. However, we owe a huge amount for student loans. We have no car payments and the only other debt we have is a home equity loan (no first mortgage). The credit card is going to be paid off by mid-November and we are attacking the student loans with all we have.

We own an old farm house that we can live in for a while but our goal is to either build or place a modular on a separate 75 acre piece of land we own. We would love to do this right away but we have to get debt free first. It will be tight living for quite a while but the end will be worth the effort.

Our key was to budget everything on paper and stick with it. I now carry envelopes in my wallet earmarked for the different things we do. When we go out to eat, I pull out the envelope and if there is enough we eat good, if it is low, we eat cheap. We have been on a solid budget for a month and it is hard to believe how much money we were spending and not even knowing where it went. I always paid bills and expenses first but the rest was free game. Now, we are on a tight budget and all excess goes to the debt. We paid off three thousand in a month and we are on a roll. I will share with you here when we get closer to our goal.

In these times of economic turmoils, it is important to get your own finances in order. How do you feel about getting debt free? Please share your own advice, plan of action, or opinion by leaving a comment.

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