Saturday, November 1, 2008

melting debt

Debt snowball... nah, I'm not talking about the debt that piles up in the winter, but rather Dave Ramsey's term for how to pay off debt. Well, we went through Financial Peace U. and have not been the most faithful. However, we have now buckled down and want to start with the debt snowball principal. I've created our list of debts and we're making our way down... ok, well, starting at the top anyways. We are doing better about sticking to a budget, as there's not much flex there anyways, but over the years all we had been doing for the extras was sticking it on credit card, not much but enough to pile up each month as it was still beyond our reach to pay off monthly. Well, now we've created a snowball of debt and need to tackle it using the same principle - the reverse way!
The only extra money (above bill-paying & grocery budget) we have towards cutting debt is what I'm making. There's a teeny bit extra on his check, but it goes towards the "unaviodables" like his weekly staff lunch out and gas for the car. So, while I guess that should make me feel good as I'm (hopefully) going to noticebly see the debt shave away, it just seems so overwhelming and that I feel like I'm only making such tiny tiny baby steps towards a huge overwhelming goal. It makes me frustrated b/c hubby likes to tinker on our third car (er, frustration right there) and likes to go road bike riding (a pasttime I definitely support). Well, inevitably there's expenses for those that "pop up." Hm. Not in the budget, I say, and they need to stay out of the budget if we're truly dedicated. I stay at home now, working from home (an amazing God-thing job that just kinda fell into my lap - about 20 hrs/wk), and I feel like I have cut out sooo much extras. I don't even go out to stores anymore (big step for me) so that I'm not tempted to buy this or that/"extras." Yikes, sorry, I'm venting a bit & going off course, but all that to say, it is really a mind-set and a HUGE committment to the dedication of paying off debt. Anyone have any success stories of encouragement to share?

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