Let's play a game
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Let's play a game
| Tue, 07-15-2008 - 9:48am |
I did this a while ago and got some pretty neat answers. We have some new faces on the board, and people are so much further in their journey. So lets play a game.
Its now 1/3/5 years down the road and you have just sent your last payment to your last bill. You are now debt free!!!! (good for you and all your hard work).
So my questions are:
1) What are you going to do with the extra money that was going towards debt? Will you keep the same budget or give yourself some "fun" money?
2) Are you going to celebrate by doing anything special? How will you reward yourself?
3) Will you share your debt story with others to help them out, or would you prefer to keep it to yourself?

What are you going to do with the extra money that was going towards debt? Will you keep the same budget or give yourself some "fun" money?
I am going to do a little of both. I am hoping to be debt free by the end of 2008, and with my October raise, that should put me at about $800 a month extra. $500 will go toward beefing up the e-fund. $80 will go toward upping my weekly allowance (from $100 - $120 for food and fun) and the extra $180 will be split between a house repair and car repair fund. Once the e-fund hits $6000 I will reduce the amount going toward it, and start putting money aside for fun things for me! Any extras (tax returns/ back pay from government) will be split between house improvement fund and vacation fund!
2) Are you going to celebrate by doing anything special? How will you reward yourself?
Spend spend spend!!! (KIDDING!!!!!!) What I am planning on doing is rewarding myself with . . . wait for it . . . a snowblower!!! LMAO!! I've already got it in the budget
Bex -
1) What are you going to do with the extra money that was going towards debt? Will you keep the same budget or give yourself some "fun" money?
Interesting questions. I would have answered them differently 2 years ago, when I didn't realized I'd be out of debt already (except for $8000 on a car loan, which I really don't count). The answers are definitely more complicated than I thought they would be.
The reason they're more complicated is that I decided to change careers to something higher paying (because I couldn't see how we could spend *less* money, so the solution seemed to be to make *more*). As you make more money, of course, you spend more. In lots of ways, we couldn't avoid it: I needed more professional clothing, the house needed infrastructure repairs urgently, and so on. Basically, my numbers now (net income and expenses) are just wildly different from what they were 2 years ago.
1) What are you going to do with the extra money that was going towards debt? Will you keep the same budget or give yourself some "fun" money? ~ There's definitely more going toward fun - we now have the ability to say "let's do it" to events, date nights, family weekends away, and a family vacation to Ireland next month. For the next year we will be spending our extra money on our home. After that, it's going to all go to savings for a year.
2) Are you going to celebrate by doing anything special? How will you reward yourself? ~ The reward was paying off the credit cards and HELOC. I can't think of any additional reward needed than knowing I got out from over $100,000 of debt!
3) Will you share your debt story with others to help them out, or would you prefer to keep it to yourself? ~ I have a couple of times here, and will happily do so again!
Kelly
1) What are you going to do with the extra money that was going towards debt? Will you keep the same budget or give yourself some "fun" money?
Once my CC debt is paid, I want to put more towards emergency fund, and the education plans for my two girls. Also, we have lots of home projects that we want to do, so we will start to slowly work on those. Fortunately, none of them are huge, so we should be able to get started pretty quickly after CC debt is paid.
2) Are you going to celebrate by doing anything special? How will you reward yourself?
I enjoy scrapbooking, but I have no space to do it conveniently. So, DH and I have agreed that I will create a space in our living room for my supplies along with a desk so that I have a spot to do my "thing". After that, a family vacation.
3) Will you share your debt story with others to help them out, or would you prefer to keep it to yourself? I will share. I am pretty open with stuff.
1) I'd like to stay on the same budget and put as much of it as possible into retirement.
1. I would LOVE to watch my savings account go up up up instead of stay the same. I would put all money extra into my savings so that if something came up I could comfortably know I had money for that.
2. I would love to save up money CASH to go back to Jamaica with my husband for a nice vacation. Then save up CASH to take my kids to disneyland.
3. I would share my debt story with anyone who wants to hear it.