Ditchin' Debt

This week, we didn't pay off as much as I would have liked to. BUT we still paid off something which is what I care about. We have a good reason why we didn't pay off as much as in the previous weeks. We paid off: Medical bill ✓ As of January 1st, we have paid off $1,678.46! Now you may be wondering why we only paid off one debt this week when we paid off so much debt the previous week. Remember last week when I said "We wanted to make sure we still had enough money left to pay for utilities and other bills later in the month." and week one I talked about Murphy's law . Well, it was smart of me to not pay off so much because Murphy came around! In my previous blog post  Refinancing your mortgage, and what you need to know!  I mentioned that we were refinancing our mortgage, which will finally be done this month. Well with doing a refinance there are closing costs on top of closing costs, apparently.  Luckily, most places can put the closing c...

This week was huge for us! We FINALLY started our debt-free journey and let me tell you, I'm hooked! We paid off: Wifes Credit Card  ✓ Lowes Credit Card  ✓ Old ER bill  ✓ Electrical outlet job  ✓ We wanted to pay off more but we also want to be cautious. We wanted to make sure we still had enough money left to pay for utilities and other bills later in the month. As of January 1st, we have paid off $1,620.04 ! Pretty good for only 2 weeks into January! The plan for next week is to pay off 2 dental bills , and another medical bill and next month we start chipping away at my credit card. My Credit card is the largest one we have. About two years ago we purchased a new roof that went on both my wife’s credit card and my credit card. Then a few months ago we bought a new furnace for our home that I had to put the rebate amount on my credit card. It’s going to feel so good lifting that weight off our shoulders! If I were to do it over again I would h...

Every week I’d like to do a weekly report of our progress getting out of debt (I know we’re finally starting) I’m not one to jump into something without doing a lot of research and obsessing over it for a few months. This week we paid $100 towards debt. Not a lot but it’s something. We have a bunch of pending medical bills that we’re paying before we tackle our credit cards (which I can’t wait to do) After paying off the $100, the next day we had to take my one and a half-year-old daughter to the ER. She was diagnosed with RSV, bronchitis, and pneumonia. Instead of putting the $150 on my credit card I paid for it fully! I was talking to my wife about how Murphy’s law really does poke their head out when you’re trying to do something new, or get out of debt. I won’t let Murphy control us though! I would like to pay off some sort of debt every week. Next week I would like to pay off 2 more bills that have been pending for a bit. Slow and steady wins the race! We are...

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...