Which program have you used...
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| Wed, 08-10-2005 - 11:57am |
Some of you may remember me.. I was on the board a few years ago when I was very serious about getting out of debt. Unfortunately, I bought a house and back up it went.. I'm once again trying to get my way out of debt.. Unfortunately this is the most I've ever had in my life. Anyways, I was wondering. Did you start out using a particular program, ie: Dave Ramsey, Mary Hunt, etc. I'm trying to decide how to go about this. Currently, all my bills are up to date. Unfortunately, every month once they are paid, I have approximately $250 left over for everything to come out of, gas, groceries, car repairs, vet bills & grooming, etc. I'm trying to decide how much I should be spending on groceries, gas, personal items, spending money..
A little background, I'm single with 2 dogs, no kids... So I really only have myself to worry about.. Any advice to getting started again? When I did this before, I didn't have a house payment or near as much debt, so I just cut back on my spending and put the rest toward debt. Now, it takes almost my whole paycheck to pay the bills and what i'm left with always get spent. Oh.. And I have stopped using my credit cards.. I cut up 17 of them last night, some were duplicates. I still have one left only because I'm going out of town on labor day weekend and that is the card we used to pay the hotel with. I wasn't sure if I would need it or not. Will be cutting it up as soon as I get home from that weekend.
Probably too much info, but any advice would be helpful.
Liz

Hi, Liz!
Yep, I was here when you were. Glad you got the house, not glad that you've got the bills to match.
I use the Dave Ramsey plan. It's broken down into baby steps, which are pretty well outlined. The first step, since you're current on your bills, is to get $1000 in the bank for a baby emergency fund. Since you have a house, I'd recommend that! I went through his Financial Peace University in 2004, and learned so much. It's a 13 week course that is usually held at a church in the surrounding area, and is very motivating. (You don't have to be a member of that church to go to the class. I'm Catholic, but took mine at a Baptist church)
You might check and see if your library has his books, "Financial Peace Revisited" and "The Total Money Makeover." Those are very helpful.
Also, one of the very first things he recommends is to do a zero-based budget. Every dollar that comes in gets a name put to it as to where it needs to go. The income should exactly equal the outgo. Sounds easy, but like he says, your first 2 or 3 will not work. That's ok-just keep fine-tuning it. I know that when we did ours, it took 4 months before I had remembered all the things that we pay throughout the year. Even now, though, I remember little things I didn't then!
The link to his budget forms(don't let 'budget' scare you ,lol) is:
http://www.daveramsey.com/
scroll down to the middle of the page and look for "Useful Tools," and then, in that section, look for "Quickie Budget" and "Cash Flow Planning Forms." The quickie budget is just that-a quick way to see where your money will be going, and the Cash flow forms is more detailed.
Welcome back-I know you're going to get this all under control again!
Lisa
Welcome back and I remember you.
I don't use any system (right now ours is "rob Peter to pay Paul and hope for more to fall from the sky on occassion" :o
Becky
CL of 4th, 5th & 6th grade Scoliosis