I have this idea (trust me, it's nothing new, it's the same idea I've have since Mark and I got married) and the idea is to make a budget and stick to it. Well, with holidays, and buying presents, that budget went out the window (or just trampled in teh dirt). But, I am making changes to the budget, and I'm cutting bills off, and I'm trying to pay off what bills I can. But all of these changes are going to start in January, I know my efforts will be in vain if I try to implement them now, I've still got to ship the gifts for Christmas. But I am serious about getting things taken care of this year. We're switching insurance so we will save tons of money that way (and when I say tons of money, I really do mean TONS of money!!). Now, it's just a matter of sticking to it. We've been doing pretty good for the past few months, but then Thanksgiving and Christmas came, and birthdays came all at the same time. But 2010 is the year I want to become debtfree, or at least it to just slightly indebted. And the thing is, that it's possible for us to do that. We just need to stick to it, and keep the dog out of the laundry detergent.
With the idea comes the strategy, and the strategy is the Dave Ramsey thing. His Total Money Make Over. Basically the plan is: Save $1000 for emergency, then pay the minimum on all bills, put all un-bedgeted money towards the littlest bill, once the little one is gone, focus the un-bedgeted money on the next little one, and so on. He calls it the Debt Snowball. We knocked out our littlest one a while back, but now we're back to saving up the emergency money again, we had some mishaps. But I'm very confident that this plan will work, and that all we need to do is stick to it. So, get ready 2010, the Collards are paying stuff off! Now, if we could just make next year go better than our first year.... I thought we would be fine our first year, that nothing would go wrong. HA! Yeah right, all kinds of stuff happened that we had to pay for. So please, 2010 (KNOCK) just go (ON) the way (WOOD) we plan!!! Dang, I probably just cursed us.... Oh well, Cheers!!
Love to all - bry and mark
5.20.14
9 years ago
1 post-its:
Good luck on following Dave's plan. It has made our life so much better. Remember, a budget is an always changing/living thing. You have to re-evaluate it often because as you said in you post, life doesn't always go as you plan it out. Also, don't get frustrated if you mess it up one month, just commit to it again the next month and keep trying. In the 3 1/2 years we have been doing it, I can only think of a few months where it worked out perfect. But the effort is well worth it, and the emergency fund is so vital. What a comfort for me to know that we can cover unexpected costs (I STRESSSSSSS over money).
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