Ditchin' Debt

This year we wanted to give everyone at my daughter's daycare a Christmas gift without breaking the bank. We found out that there was a dollar tree by us and wanted to go by for a visit to check it out since we’ve never been to one before. We lived in the city and there was a dollar general near us but they sold things over a dollar. Some items in there were up to $5 so we never bothered shopping there. We were blown away at dollar tree though. There were some things in there where we would both stop and say “This can’t be just a dollar!" Now, this store is both a blessing and a curse. Yes, everything in there is just a dollar, but sometimes you end up leaving there with a bunch of stuff and $20 less then you came in with! We wanted to be frugal with our Christmas shopping so we came up with a plan before we shopped.  We knew we wanted to give them something cute, but not just food. My wife found these cute snowmen mugs and we decided they’d be the perfect gift f...

The new year is right around the corner, and I’m excited to see what the new year brings! So far this year I have: Reached 131 followers on twitter I was blown away at how many followers I gained in three months. The way I achieved this is by not using twitter just to post my content. I made twitter pals that I interact with, and also post about both my life and financial life. People don’t want to just see your blog posts, they want to interact with a human! Blogged at least once every week for three months It may not be the same day every week, but I did manage to post at least once a week (excluding holiday weeks) on my blog. I didn’t realize how much I have to plan in advance for posting blog posts. My goals for 2020: Reach 500 followers on twitter I am hoping to surpass this goal by June but I like to give myself goals that are reachable rather than goals that are a bit harder to reach. Once I start getting better at blogging I’ll make more difficult goals. But for now...

If your mortgage is over 4% then like mine, you’re on the struggle bus when it’s that time of the month to pay your mortgage. As of this blog post, some people are offering interest rates as low as 3.5% but there are some things you need to know before refinancing your mortgage, loan or anything else you may be able to refinance. Shop around for rates When I was looking to refinance my mortgage, I knew we wanted something that would decrease our current interest rate (4.625%) and monthly payments. Here are some of the interest rates I was given per company: Company A: 3.625%-3.75% with a monthly payment of $1,600 Company B: 3.275% but didn't give a monthly payment (the guy also seemed like he was distracted so I didn’t trust the estimate) Company C: 3.5% with a monthly payment of $1,131 Company D: 3.625% with a monthly payment of $1,135 Cash-out refinance vs traditional refinance This is a hard decision to make. If you choose to cash out you get cash upfront for ...

I am sick and tired of living paycheck to paycheck and constantly having to think ahead of my expenses, which is why I’m on this journey. This month was yet another month I did the bill date shuffle. What’s the bill date shuffle you may ask? The bill date shuffle is when you have a payment due that will drain your bank account so you can’t pay another bill in full. We’ve all done it, I just gave it a fun name. But it’s time to break this vicious cycle of living paycheck to paycheck and doing the last dance of the bill date shuffle. Easier said than done. This isn’t the first blog post I talk about this, and probably won’t be the last. But writing these blog posts is a good reminder for me to THINK about what I am buying before I buy it. Now, we did have some off chance medical visits that required a $30 copay here and there, which isn’t totally our fault. Anything that is out of my control I’m not going to stress about. But buying breakfast at work or buying an unnecessary item, that...

It’s that time of year again, the time where people blindly choose what kind of health coverage they are going to have for the next year. Most people stick with the same plan as the year before, but that may not be the best option for you. Here are some tips and tricks I’ve learned throughout my 5 years of working for health insurance. Price Price is a big factor in what plan you are choosing. Your work will probably offer one or two plans to choose from. So if you have two plans one is going to be cheaper than the other (hopefully). Option A: The lower-priced plan is most likely going to have a higher deductible you need to meet before your health insurance pays anything extra. Option B: The higher-priced plan will most likely have a smaller deductible then the cheaper plan. This is where understanding your plan, and what kind of situation medically you’re in. Understanding the plans My rule of thumb when choosing a plan is to think about next year. Are you sick often?...

Becoming debt-free is not a stroll in the park. Saving money is difficult, working overtime gets old fast, and becoming debt free is a long journey. Here are some road blocks I've encountered during my journey of getting out of debt.  Budgeting isn’t easy or simple  I have been budgeting for about two months now and I still somehow come up barely affording anything. There are a lot of apps out there that help you put your bills into categories which is great to see. But budgeting is so much more than just writing down your monthly payments. Budgeting is choosing not to buy X because you’re saving money or not go to some movie that’s in theaters because the movie ticket just isn't worth it right now. Budgeting = Sacrificing spending for fun for saving funds Overtime is draining  I work about 8-10 hours of overtime a week (depending on if I want to work on Sunday or not). I try to spread it out so I don't get burned out. I work an hour each day except Thursday ...

Efficiently shopping for groceries has become easier as more resources become available to us. The internet has made it easy to compare prices without leaving the comfort of your favorite chair! Here are some easy ways to save money on grocery shopping and to help you stay on budget! If you don't have a budget check out my blog post  Here  to see how I budget! Plan what you're going to buy ahead of time. When it comes to grocery shopping, you MUST think ahead. We have all been there. You go to turn down the chip aisle and it feels like you haven't eaten in what feels like days. Then you impulse buy and end up with $200 worth of junk food. That’s why you should come to the grocery store with a game plan and some recipes in mind. The recipes don’t have to be set in stone, some of the items on your list may not be on sale that week. But if you go in with a plan and think ahead you will more than likely not overspend.  Shop around (look for those deals!)  Market ...

I thought it would be cool to show you what the blank slate for my budget looks like for the next month. I'll point out some interesting points in the budget to give you an idea of where my heads at. November Budget: So we're starting out with a good amount In our checking which is great/ a tease because that amount is going to drop fast soon. Week 1 11.1 L's School: L's School is good at letting us skip a week if we need to . Gas: We try to stay as close to to our weekly goal as possible. we go by when the car gets to half a tank. Fitness  Reimbursement: A nice surprise! 11.2 Week 2 11.3 11.4 11.5 Ah, my bank account can take a nice breath before it gets beat up 11.6 11.7 11.8 C's Credit Card: L’s School: Gas: 11.9 Mortgage: This will be going down soon once the paperwork for the refinance goes Groceries: through Week 3 11.10 11.11 Loan #1 11.12 11.13 George’s Credit Card 11.14 Work PayDay. This week is going to be tough because befo...

When getting out of debt, people often choose a side hustle. Now if you’re just starting out like myself you may be like: WHAT THE HECK IS MY SIDE HUSTLE?? I listened to The Ken Coleman S how, who gives you advice about getting your dream job, and what he says is to choose something that you’re good at and that makes you happy. So I thought, why not apply that to my side hustle! HOW DO I CHOOSE MY SIDE HUSTLE When thinking of things I’m good at all I could think of is: *I like playing video games *I like making people laugh *I enjoy cooking Then while at work, I decided I was going to grow some plants. For me, Basil is easy to grow and smells awesome! I then thought to myself, I want to try and grow black beans. So I did just that! My manager and a co-worker came over to me the other day and asked me “why aren’t you a Gardener? You definitely have a green thumb!” So they made the decision for me! Gardening was going to be my side hustle. HOW THE HECK AM I GOING TO DO T...

There is a limbo that nobody talks about in the baby steps. Or at least, one that I'm currently hitting right now.  We have the $1,000 in our emergency fund, but we don't have enough money in our checking to make additional payments to debt! This is the limbo I am referring too. But, we aren’t in hell...I don’t think. *pinches self* nope, I am very much alive! So we have the option to do something about this!  Here are some of the ways I plan on getting out of limbo: - do even more Overtime - cut expenses - Sell sell sell! Overtime As much as I’d love to relax with my family on the weekends, my work offers overtime on Saturday and Sunday.  https://pixabay.com/vectors/work-overtime-over-night-stress-3992714/ If I work 5 hours on Saturday and 3 hours on Sunday, that would give me $242 more that week (before taxes). I earn time and a half on Sundays (because who wants to work on Sundays). The great thing about doing overtime on the weekends is I don...

As I listen to Dave Ramsey talk on his podcast, I often wonder if I would ever consider trying to become a millionaire. I mean, it would be pretty sweet to be a millionaire, but I'm not sure if I have the right smarts to invest or do anything that he suggests to do with Roth IRA’s, real estate, or the stock market. I understand a little bit about what he's talking about, but I'd be so afraid to mess up with the stock market or choosing the wrong real estate property, that I don't think it would be worth it. I read a book called The 30-minute millionaire by Jeff Cox and Peter Tanous and that did clear up some stuff about the stock market that I was a bit confused about. There is so much chance in the stock market that I'd rather just put money into my 401k and have my company match that or set up a Roth-IRA. A Roth-IRA seems the less risky move because if I dumb it down for myself, it’s a fancy savings account that I can’t touch until I'm 60. Real...

A few months ago, before my wife and I started budgeting, the unthinkable happened. Our checking was down to $500 and we had to pay for day care, which is $225, and we had one of my loans to pay which is about $300. At this time, we had about $500 in our savings and I’ve never heard of Dave Ramsey or knew anything else about saving money. So, we did what any other person in our situation would do, we moved half of our savings into the checking so we could pay the daycare bill.   I knew something had to change and that’s when I realized we had to get our financial plan in order. I sat there and listed all our payments and ordered them from what was due when. That’s also when we made our budget like I referred to in my earlier blog post here .                  I had a plan and we were sticking to it! But, nobody’s perfect and just a few days ago we went food shopping at BJ’s and spent almost $300 on g...

When we started the long journey to saving up $1,000 we were already about $250 shy of reaching $1,000. I like to think that most people have a good sense of saving at least SOMETHING in their savings. Even though we only had $250 to go until we met the amount, we couldn’t just drop that much from our checking to our savings because of our budget. We spend about $4000 a month on our debt, including our mortgage and we bring in about $4,200 (we found that out by doing our budget, we were very sad https://pixabay.com/photos/coins-currency-investment-insurance-1523383/ to see how close we were to not being able to afford anything) There was only one thing I could think of doing in order to get ourselves out of debt, and that was to do Overtime. If you are trying to get out of debt, overtime is your best friend. I’ve been working overtime an hour extra every weekday for the past few weeks and my check has increased a couple hundred dollars. The way my work does over time...

I just started getting out of Debt about a month ago. I haven’t even started paying anything off yet. But by doing this one item, a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Do you stay up at night, moving money around between your checking and savings accounts worrying about the next payment that’s due in a few days? Are you living in a constant state of panic, not knowing if your check will make it in your bank on time to pay your mortgage? I have, and it’s not fun. I would go ahead and say it’s in my top 5 worst feelings in the world.                 There is hope though, and most people do not do this. According to an article with CNN, in 2016 only 41% of Americans have this, and that’s a budget. A budget lifted a heavyweight from my shoulders and that’s why I think people should start off budgeting so they can wake up from their Debt Coma.           ...