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| Mon, 08-16-2004 - 5:12pm |
I used to post on this board quite a bit
but have gotten off track lately. We still
owe on a small student loan (about $4,000),
but are doing ok overall with our finances.
We still have a decent emergency fund that we had to
rebuild after our dog had a cancer scare (turned
out to be a spider bite!).
But lately I'm finding that I'm shopping for our
house too much. I've gotten in a bad habit of
charging up our Discover card and then
paying it off. Luckily, we haven't carried a balance
more than a month but it's been getting close to $1000 at times!
If I don't knock it off it won't be long before it's
too much to handle. I paid it off today and am vowing
that I'm DONE with it!
I really need to start concentrating on that student loan
again. It just won't die! Grrrr.
I started up again with Quicken this month. So far our
account is balanced, which never lasts very long. But it
feels good to be back in the swing of budgeting again.
We recently took out a home equity line of credit to get new
windows, but we haven't touched it yet. I think when
they called it a "second mortgage" we both gulped
and decided to wait a while for our windows. Maybe we
can work out a savings plan to pay cash instead!
It WILL be good for energy savings, but there must
be a way to do it without racking up debt.
Anyway, I just wanted to say hi. I'm sure I'll be lurking
around to try to get some ideas to get back on track.
I hope everyone's doing well!

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I was hoping that the reason you hadn't been posting is that you had made it to 'the other side' (got debtfree), LOL!
Glad your dog is OK. That must have been quite scary.
Yeah, that "Oh, it's a second Mortgage" thing scared me too-that's one of the first ones that I made sure we paid off. If you can get the windows with cash, I'd say do it!
Good to see you again, well, as far as that ever goes around here, lol...
~Lisa :)
Good to see your post!
I'm also glad that your dog doesn't have serious health problems.
It's so easy to get off track especially when things seem to be rolling along :)
Hope to see more of you!
Kassandra
Kassandra
"It is said that life has its peaks and valleys. The challenge is to accept them equally and experience them
Glad to hear you are doing well and YIKES...it is so easy to get back into the trap of the credit cards, glad you caught yourself and yes that 2nd mortgage concept is scary isn't it!
Becky
CL of 4th, 5th & 6th grade Scoliosis
I remember you! Just wanted to say hi. I understand the temptation to spend on the house. We just got moved in in May and it's SO tempting to charge up things, especially when we can justify it that it will "save us money in the long run."
The mantra to repeat is that it only saves you money if you're saving more than you're paying in interest on the loan. Windows take a while to return on the investment anyway, and if in the meantime you're paying interest as well as principal, well, you're not really saving much. :)
Anyway, good for you on waiting. Post your student loan balance on the refrigerator, and write below it each payment you make, so you can watch that balance decrease. You'll have it knocked out before you know it. Then focus on watching your savings grow for retirement (or whatever) with the money you used to send to debts.
Congratulations on having come so far. Keep checking in and let us know how you're doing.
Blessings,
Heather
come out each time? It's so tempting just to "have them
done" and then "promise" to pay it off. But what a great
feeling to pay for them as you go and not tap into
your house's equity.
hadn't been posting is that you
had made it to 'the other side'
(got debtfree), LOL! "
I wish! You can be sure I would have
let you all know with a big
"I'M DEBTFREE" post! LOL
I should be. There's no reason in the world I shouldn't
be. But I'm not! That last student loan is a real
thorn in my side. I think my motto used to be "Debt-free
by 2003". Can you believe that? We plowed through $12,000
or something like that but now we've been hung up on the
last $4,000 for a year and a half.
Have you ever heard the theory that some people can't lose
weight because they're afraid to? That deep down being
overweight is comfortable? Maybe that's my problem. I'm
"afraid" to be debt-free because of the responsibility and
the fear that I won't be able to stay that way. :)
It's either that or the fact that I WANT too many things and
have lost a lot of willpower! I felt deprived for so long!
So I got in the nasty habit of "putting it on the card"
promising myself I would pay it off. And I have so far,
but barely, and it's taking a lot of money that
could have gone toward that student loan or savings.
But I feel like things are turning around. I REALLY want
that student loan gone by the end of the year! It won't be
easy, but I think there's an extra paycheck or two in there
and I can sell some things. So that's my new goal. $4,232.04 to go.
Debt-free by 2005!
Edited 8/17/2004 8:39 am ET ET by zaboz
Hi Zaboz!
It must be 'old home week'.
Lee Ann
www.werenotafraid.com
Just kidding. Sort of.
Gulp.
Ok, I'm going to get slammed for this but I really
feel better having a card available. Sometimes
we order things online and I feel better using
a credit card instead of a debit card that's
linked directly to our bank account. And sometimes
we rent a car or reserve a hotel room
and some places won't take debit cards.
I'm so pathetic. Getting rid of my last card is a huge
step that I've never been comfortable with. My head is full
of "What ifs?"
For example, I posted that my dog just had
some problems. We put it on Discover, then
paid it off with our emergency fund (because our savings
is in ING which is not instantly accessible).
The other option would have been high interest rate
in-house financing, which we would have had to apply
for. We've never paid a dime of interest
on our Discover, in fact we've gotten over $40 back (because
of all the spending we've done, LOL).
I think I will be ok with it once we have a bit of padding
in our checking account (aside from our somewhat hard-to-get
to savings). But I have financial insecurity issues and I'm
not sure I can be completely card-free!
There there, I hear you.
Lee Ann
www.werenotafraid.com
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