anyone else falling behind

I hear you... there was a time not long ago where we burned stacks of $100 bills in the fireplace even when it was hot outside... those days are gone now.

We make due with $20 bills and only when its below 75F.

No, I am not falling behind! It is a lesson that I learned about 20 years ago. You MUST do things differently or nothing will change!!

Once I was a slave to debt until I god REALLY angry and made a lot of changes.

Careful study of one of my credit card bill (Sears) showed me that my $62 minimum payment was actually $12 to principle and $50 for interest! This was when I had a late payment charge of $35 added to it that was actually going to cost $186!! My $4000 in debt was totalling $20,000 and I would be paying them for the next 32 years.

I got mad and payed them off as fast as possible and never looked back.

Minor adjustments to my spending were the next goal. No spending was too minor to consider. I found that my afternoon snack of a Snickers bar and a Dr. Pepper from the vending machine was $2.25 per day. Started buying from the store in bulk, freeze the candy and take it to work in an insulated bag only cost me 53 cents a day. Saved $43.75 a month!

If you just write down what you spend for a month, and I mean ALL you spend, you will be upset at yourself and those you pay money to. This will be a shocking experience.

Change or be eaten by debt.

Bruce

In addition to the great advice here, I find that simply writing down what I spend a day, curbs my spending. I don't even review it, but it keeps me disciplined.

Im not falling behind but I have been making cuts to keep up. Killed the TV, Eat at home more, Limit driving/Take the bus. I still have a racing budget so its not all bad. I have free time that I could spend working if I need to.

cb wrote: well im not a home owner and will be laid off in the next 5 weeks,, i have a new job lined up on pt though. still lookin at ft but having no luck. im tryin to pay what i can as close to on time as possible.. its gonna be long and hard but i will get it done.

Excellent.

You have a good start. No, it's not fun getting laid off, working part time, or having debt. But the good part is that you are looking ahead. That's step one.

Step 2: "as close to on time as possible" isn't quite good enough. "Trying to pay what I can RELIGIOUSLY on time, even if it is not the complete amount" is more what you need to be looking for.

Step 3: Write a budget. Now. It won't be accurate, because you don't know what you spend on a lot of little stuff, but it will be a plan you can work from, and improve as you go. Here's a starting point for budgeting. Crown budget

Step 4: Figure out where you SHOULDN'T be spending money. If you start budgeting, you will find you were overspending on something. You developed debt, when you don't even have an asset like a home. Consumer spending?? You've got to reign it in, and get close to the percentages shown in that budgeting link. You CAN'T spend more than you make, and you MUST include money in your budget to pay off debt.

Step 5: Live it. Your budget will be hard to stick to, and those choices to not spend will be difficult. When you must overspend a category in your budget, you will have to adjust another category. In other words, spend too much on car repairs, and you can't spend as much on entertainment.

You've got a start. Good luck.

For what its worth, I've been in LOTS of debt at times in my life, always when I didn't have a budget. I owed nearly 10 times my annual income at one time 5 years ago.

I am back on a budget, and work hard to keep out of debt.

I currently owe NOTHING except my modest home mortgage (payments are 16% of my income). It is very freeing.

It's hard work, and VERY worth it.

my modest budget beginnings will be to quit smoking. it will be a 2 fold victory. save 6.25 a day. and my health will improve. so modest beginngs are a start i suppose.

No modest budget beginnings. Cancel all cable, cell phones, extraneous spending of any kind, etc... Figure out how much you make and how much you really can live on. Can you lose weight without dying? 1800 moderately healthy calories are waaaay cheaper than 5000calories of junk. Ride your bike or walk. Make being thrifty a contest with yourself. Pick up a few extra hours anywhere and dedicate ALL of the extra income to the bills. Pay hard, pay fast, and pay it off.

first step is the minimums on time. you can never, ever do less. there are things in your life you can go without before that.

part of a balanced plan to dig out of debt is figuring out what you can do to keep sane. yes, you're going to have to cut back on many things that are "fun" and wants but not needs. spend some time coming up with a list of things that are free or near to it that are fun. the library is a great asset, especially if you live in a well populated enough area to get most of the new book releases. we live near the ocean and after a modest initial purchase, i can go fish for free many places, or watch sunsets, or go for bike rides, etc...

another thing that has really helped me with paying down my debt is trying to make more than a minimum. if i can, i tack on even $10 extra bucks to a minimum payment. honestly, you're not going to miss that money but adding it up will make a noticeable difference in your debt because unless you pay SOMETHING more than your minimum, you're really just paying interest.

here's what i've done thusfar in college: transportation- my parents old van, older than me. they didn't want it and couldn't sell it. FREE for my use. (though gas is pricey, i have a bicycle for getting around if it's close) furniture: thrift shop- love seat mint condition $10. rocking brown arm chair (very comfortable, one cloth imperfection, though very ugly) $0.90. tv table- $6 (with shelves and wheels). bookshelf $8. black and doens't match anything, but $8 for a 6 foot shelf?! TV- my parents basement. it's as old as me, weighs a ton - free if i could get it out of their basement. end table- free from a friend, who got it for free himself. Food- brow bag it. PB&J supplies are real cheap at a Sams club! school books- buy used. super used. like, doens't look like a book anymore used. real cheap.

with patience and MUCH creativity, anything can be found cheap. and i plan to keep it all as furniture until i'm through all of my schooling and pay off my loans, which i have none now but i can smell them comming...

cb wrote: my modest budget beginnings will be to quit smoking. it will be a 2 fold victory. save 6.25 a day. and my health will improve. so modest beginngs are a start i suppose.

GREAT idea!!

(Former 5 pack a dayer here!!)

You won't regret it (though you won't like it for a longtime).

SVreX wrote:

cb wrote: my modest budget beginnings will be to quit smoking. it will be a 2 fold victory. save 6.25 a day. and my health will improve. so modest beginngs are a start i suppose.

GREAT idea!! (Former 5 pack a dayer here!!) You won't regret it (though you won't like it for a longtime).

For years I considered quitting for the health benefits, but lately the price of smokes have gone though the roof, and that will likely cinch the deal. It won't be easy, but has to be done.

SVreX wrote: GREAT idea!! (Former 5 pack a dayer here!!) You won't regret it (though you won't like it for a longtime).

5 packs a day?!?

Wow. That's a lot of cigarettes.

Yeah, it was pretty bad.

Lit one off the previous one for most of the time I was awake- never needed matches.

Smoked for 14 years, been off 'em for 21 years now. Still miss 'em every once in a while. I'd rather a boiling oil enema than try one, though. I know better than to trust myself.

Yeah, I hear ya SVreX. I was up to three packs a day of Marlboro Reds. I realized one day that I had been smoking for more years than I had not been smoking and I just said, "That's enough". Been about 4 years ago now since I quit and I still have dreams about them sometimes. I wake up feeling all guilty LOL

I went to Light cigarettes, and ended up smoking twice as many of them. It's a no-win situation. I was raised on a tobacco farm in south Georgia, and considered it normal to smoke. Now I know better, but I'm hooked. Sucks.

i quit for 2 1/2 years when i got real sick. and started again when my mom had a bad ac cident and almost didnt make it. i know sounds kinda like acop out. but when i get laid off i can get my retirement money, only be a few grand. i am going to knock out some low balance credit cards and that it is hammer time with the other bigger ones.. gonna take a while but i will get it done. and i would like to thank everyone for there ideas, suggestions and general kick in the pants to get it done.. grm is the best.

chris

awesome!

I'm in the same boat. Is there a GRM DIY suicide booth in back issue?

I bring my lunch box with every day to work. Super Man/metal it a great convastion starter. In there you will find my normal lunch, wich is a sandwich on a bagle(bagles are a lot more feeling then bread) fruit cup and a coke. At home I only keep one coke in the frig there for you drink not nearly as much.

One other thing we did was swich insurance heath and auto. I know that wont help every one but its there.

Only one tip I haven't seen here yet...

Having been out of work and sinking faster than I could bail, I got a very short piece of advice from a friend:

You can buy more stuff later.

You'd be surprised how much cash you can raise by taking a good hard look at what you own and selling, selling, selling. Don't dump items at a loss, but if you've got CC debt and a spare car or debt and a Gretsch Country Gentleman, or debt and highish-end electronics...hit up eBay or Craigslist and let 'em go.