Ok, I know this is late–I’m actually already working on my December update, but I do want to do a little happy dance and announce some progress on the debt-freedom project at my house.
What a year it’s been. As I expected, I’ve felt myself loosing steam and energy this fall (these Seattle winters…being nine months long… are really a drain on the system). I’m glad we’re in Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University this fall as it’s providing a much needed boost and accountability as well as some new tricks to accelerate our journey to debt freedom. Not to mention a once weekly quasi “date night.” My husband actually wants to enroll in a 2nd FPU so we’re going to classes right up until our debt-free date. I’ve got my doubts on the amount of time-committment I want to put towards classes we’ve already taken.
We’re on our 2nd month of using the cash-flow plan and while it’s a little tricky to get the hang of, it works wonderfully and it doesn’t allow us to overspend.
Our remaining debts are:
Card 1 $337.81
Card 2 $12,253.64
Medical debts ZERO.
Mortgage debt $161,189
We’ve made the most headway in the mortgage because of our new 15-year loan. Our credit card debts really don’t seem to be going down very quickly—but here’s the rub; we’ve got an emergency fund now, and a budget—so when large items came up (tire blowout, car battery failure and towing bill, even more medical expenses, as well as lost income due to illness) we’ve been able to absorb those where previously we would have warmed up the charge cards.
We haven’t used plastic in at least six months, and I think it might be closer to back to January, and as I mentioned earlier, Murphy is giving us a workout. We had several more bouts with illness here in November resulting in a bunch more medical expenses, but we’ve heavily padded our medical budget and we have savings.
We’re still making substantial payments $400+ a month towards credit cards, and we have a $5,000 bonus coming in February or March which will be applied directly to that.
Also—more on this subject later, but we’re prepared for Christmas shopping. We’ll be shopping without plastic this year. We have a list and a budget and we’ll be sticking to it like glue. That gives me more peace than I ever expected.
Our new debt-freedom date is July, 2010.
How are you all doing in your journey?
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi – when you say debt free, are you paying your mortgage off by july?
My husband and I are also following Dave Ramsey’s plan. We have also run into Murphy. It’s frustrating, but looking at the long term picture helps us to hang in there. For us Murphy has been $3000 in car repairs in 6 months and $800 in unavoidable dental bills. It stinks, but I know that if we keep plugging along that we will make it to the end. Good luck on your journey.
Chris, no, we won’t be free of the mortgage… that’s an “everything but” figure. We’ll be free of all but the mortgage. We have 14 years left on the mortgage and think we can have it done in six, except we’re considering a move closer to my husband’s job–where a home would be much cheaper–so that actually may cut the time back even further. The goal is to have the house paid off by age 35.
Sara, I hear you! We’ve been doing the TMMO since last January and have been back to baby-step-one several times now. Surprise car breakdowns, hospitalizations, an illness that kept me out of work for six weeks… it’s been a whopper of a year. Fact of the matter is, it likely has always been like that but I’ve never budgeted for it–I just charged the emergencies… which is got me in this situation in the first place I think.
I’m really excited about having a great big emergency fund built up in baby-step three.
Good luck on your journey as well!
Congrats on the new debt free date! I can’t wait to keep up with your progress!!!
Congrats on your progress!
Woohoo, glad to hear you’ve made such great progress! I love to see that big fat ZERO in front of your medical debt.
I just got my $1,000 E-Fund in place, and I suppose I am all set for my first visit from Mr. Murphy. Just the same, it is a much better position to be in than the one we were all in before we started teh total money makeover plan, right? KUDOS!
Come on July 2010! Getting out of debt is a lot of work and glad to see you are getting there. Best of luck for the New Year.
Just remember to calculate taxes from that 5k bonus, if you haven’t already done so.
Nice work!