Town Hall for Hope

If you haven't already heard, Dave Ramsey is doing a "talk/question-answer session" called Town Hall for Hope. I highly recommend you to check it out and get some hope for this economy!! I can't wait!!! I know it'll be really inspiring and hopeful. Many churches all around the country are hosting it, and I've even noticed that some have free childcare (and of course the event is free), so no excuses, go listen and watch, and get some HOPE!

For more information or to find a location near you, visit http://www.townhallforhope.com/

Oh and its April 23, 2009 and 8 p.m. Eastern with a west coast delay at 7pm PT.

A few random thoughts...

So, if we don't have to spend any money moving (fingers crossed), or can just pull it out of our budget, then we'll have $5649.44 to put towards our debt snowball (we just learned how much we're getting back in our tax return, yay!) That number is from what we have now and our tax return.

So, we've been playing with how to use it. We could pay off Phil's last student loan, the hospital bill, and half of my lowest student loan... or we could pay off ALMOST all of the credit card with $591.64 left on it. Plus, its at 15.99% interest, which would save a lot of money because of interest over time. Either way, it would put the same amount of money to roll into our debt snowball, $155 (credit card) or $50 Phil's student loan plus $100 hospital bill. Then of course, the CC would be our lowest debt, and we'd hopefully be able to knock it out in one month, and knock out the other two pretty quickly.

Any thoughts are always appreciated and welcome.

Debt Free Date!!

Oh and I forgot to share, but my friend Katie gave me a link to this really cool debt snowball calculator.

If we stay at the rate we're at, minimums plus just under $300/month extra, we'll have everything paid off by December 2012. That seems like FOREVER away!!

Hopefully, we'll step it up a notch. If we paid an extra $1000/month we'd be debt free by February 2011, or if we did it in order of interest (not smallest to largest), it'd be January 2011. But, we're going to stick to the plan, smallest to largest.

And say we get a $10k bonus? And paid an extra $1000/month, we'd be debt free by July 2010. Now where can I find that extra $10k??

Oh and here's the link for anyone interested:

http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx?country=us

So, I think I'll make our official debt snowball date July 2011. That's us paying an extra $700/month and in order from smallest to biggest. It also doesn't include any other extra random money.

So, 27 months (hopefully shorter)! WE CAN DO IT!!

Debts Update

So, for a little motivation, I need to update my Debt Snowball list...

$1048.51 Phil's student loan, $50/month, 4.210% interest
$2816.46 Hospital Bill, $100/month, 0% interest
$3575.29 Anna's MST student loan, $40/month, 5% interest
$5358.95 Anna's DIRECT student loan, $63.30/month, 6.8% interest
$6241.08 Credit Card, $155/month, 15.99% interest
$11403.37 Anna's MOHELA student loan, $131.18, 6.8% interest (they 'considilated' it so two are at that and the other is at 4.2% interest or something).

Grand Total: $30443.66

I hope that next month we'll be below $30k!!! Since we put a hold on the debt snowball though, I think it'll be another month. Then we'll never again be over $30k (except when we buy a house because the 100% down plan just isn't gonna work for us).

I wish we didn't have to put this snowball on hold, but after the move (assuming we do), everything left over will be put on the snowball. And, that should be something because we're going to get our tax refund. I'm a little behind on taxes. I send them to the accountant tomorrow morning (got them all done today), and we are expecting around $2k.

Now if only Phil would get a $10k bonus or something for this project he's on. Then we'd be below $20k!!

I hate debt :(

Debt Snowball on Hold!

So, we're putting our debt snowball on hold. With the possibility of moving, we're going to need our baby e-fund, and/or any extra money we would put towards the snowball. So... we're waiting to put anything towards it. Once we get moved (hopefully we do), we'll have a big check to write towards a couple debts. I'm hoping it all goes through ok and quickly and that we get some sort of moving package to help us get down there, like maybe they'll come move all our stuff!!

FILL 'EM UP :)

Its payday! Well, was on Friday, so today I get to go and take out all the cash and refill our envelopes, oh how I love that! I feel rich, until I go to the store and spend it :(. But then I remind myself that we have to eat if we want to exist.

I'm also going to take the advise of Kate, go and buy some clippers. They'll pay for themselves after two uses, and this way Phil can get his hair cut a little more often... like he wants. (Every 4-6 weeks not 8). Lets just pray I don't screw it up, or we'll be shaving him bald. But, that could be interesting!! And we'll save a bunch of money!! YAAY! Now if only that would work for me... but I haven't had a hair cut in a ridiculously long time, boy do I need one!

Looks like we're at $429.86 for our debt snowball this month, unless we come across any more cash... my fingers are crossed. We also need to get our taxes done. I need to call Mike and get stuff sent. We should get $2000 and that will speed up the debt snowball a bit! Yay!

March's Budget

Here's our Budget for March...

As always, suggestions are welcome!! I'm always looking for ways to cut things, and a second set of eyes never hurt anyone.

TAKE HOME: $2960.29 (Yay, it went up, we adjusted for taxes).

Charitable Gifts: $50
Rent: $808
Renters Insurance: $13.08
Water: $53.62
Electricity: $139.60 (yaaay, this went way down!)
Internet Service: $27.45 (Still need to call and cancel)
Grocery: $300
Car Insurance: $77.22 (Still not paying for Phil's, we need to talk to his parents).
Repairs and Tires: $30
Gas and Oil: $50 (We have over $100 left from before, and Phil uses no gas while in Clarskville).
Children's Clothing: $30
Adult Clothing: $0 (We have $40-ish left from last month and neither of us really NEED anything).
Health Insurance: $210.17
Miscellaneous: $10.00
Household: $115.00
ID Theft: $11.67 (We're starting a sinking fund for this, so we can save money by paying yearly instead of monthly).
Hair Care: $14.00 (Cost of haircut plus tip at Great Clips-Phil).
Mops: $10.00 ($5/meeting, twice a month).
Gifts (Incl. Christmas): $20.00 (I don't think we're going to have a big Christmas again this year.)
BLOW Money: $25.00
Pet Supplies: $20.00
Credit Card: $155.00
MOHELA-Anna: $131.18
Direct Loans-Anna: $63.30
MST-Anna: $40 (This is new this month, it was in its grace period until March).
Direct Loans-Phil: $50 (Currently first on debt snowball)
Hospital Bill: $100
Debt Snowball: $405.99 (Extra money we squeezed out of the budget for the Debt Snowball. Whatever random money that we find will also go towards it).