Focusing on Debt
April 30th, 2009
When I started this blog almost two and a half years ago I was in debt and I wanted to make money and live the ‘easy life’. A lot has happened since that time, I’ve gotten married, moved into a new house, changed jobs three times and most importantly had a baby. My life now is different than it was when I started this blog. Unfortunately there are a few things that have not changed, I’m still in debt. My wife and I are still in debt. The good thing is that we’re not drowning in our debt with a mortgage that we can’t afford like a lot of people are. With the arrival of the new one we now know that our lives are forever changed and our lifestyle has to change along with it.
We see our friends who managed to come out of their twenties with little to no debt and with the economic times being tough they’re able to take advantage of the great deals that are out there. Cars selling at huge discounts, houses that are priced reasonably or even purchased at a huge discount. My wife and I got to thinking about our debt and our lives. The reality is that our debt is holding us back. We would be in a great situation if we weren’t carrying any debt. Unfortunately that’s something that we are carrying (along with a wiggly baby from time to time)
The Conclusion
We have decided to focus our efforts on our debt… to some extent, but that is a completely separate post. We are going to start attacking our debt as much as humanly possible; we’re tired of looking at our budgets each month and realizing that we’ve got enough to get bye but only barely. I am now 32 and its time to get rid of the debt.
The Plan
The plan is pretty simple, one debt at a time. My wife and I have kept a significant part of our debts and finances for that matter separate (again this is another post) but we’re going to start budgeting together and tackling our debt together, one credit card and one debt at a time. We are going to start with one of my wife’s credit cards and take it from there. We have both come to the realization that if we were debt free we would be so much better off and now is the time to strive to achieve this.
From personal experience I saw my parents get into debt trouble when I was a teenager and slowly claw their way out around the time I was starting working. I didn’t learn from their mistakes I just managed to repeat them but I did learn one thing (although partially on my own) unless there is a good reason to carry debt it’s a bad thing. By focusing our efforts we’ll be able to get rid of one debt at a time quicker.
Over the past couple months I have been posting very little partially because of being incredibly busy and partially from being in my own little world. Blogging about getting out of debt has helped other bloggers and I think it will help me. I know it will take a little time to find my rhythm but I saw the great strides that Trish from Blogging away debt made and I think its time to focus on my debt before starting to focus on getting the one million that I would like to have.
Posted in Debt, Financial Situation | 1 Comment
Weekly Budget – Week 17
April 20th, 2009
I haven’t been writing much on this blog lately and I also haven’t been as good with my budgeting but its time to get back into the rhythm of things and for me the best way to get back into it is to get my weekly budgets going again. The reality is that for me a weekly budget shows results quickly and that can be a powerful motivator (though if not successful it can also show you that you’re doing something wrong).
Here is my budget for this week:
| Weekly Budget Feb 23 – Mar 1 |
||
| Budget | Actual | |
| Alcohol | $00.00 | |
| Food-Lunch | $20.00 | |
| Food | $75.00 | |
| Gas | $0.00 | |
| Entertainment | $0.00 | |
| Smokes | $30.00 | |
| Misc | $40.00 | |
| Transportation | $20.00 | |
| Stupid | $10.00 | |
| Total | $195.00 | |
My goal with this weeks budget is to start getting back on track. Its similar to previous weeks although the alcohol cagetory is currently empty. Although this is a bit of wishful thinking we had a BBQ over the weekend and the net result was that we ended up with some extra so the goal for the week is to use this up rather than buying more. My goal will be to not to spend any extra in this category.
The other categories are pretty similar to what they’ve been in the past. I am writing this a bit late since I already spent 20 on eating out for lunch but I rarely do anything for lunch and thought it would be a good way to socialize with coworkers. Not the best way to spend my money I know but there are times when spending a little bit of money can go a long way.
I am also going to do something a little different this week in that if I can meet this weeks budget I am going to buy myself a new book. I have been eyeing Leo Babauta’s The Power of Less and if I can meet my goal of $195 then I will buy myself the book to read. This little reward might be counter intuitive but I want to reinforce budgeting in myself and this week I’ll make it simple (or at least plan to) and make it harder from here on in.
Posted in 2009, Weekly Budgets | 1 Comment
The Quietest Month On Record
April 1st, 2009
This last month I managed to post only once to the blog even though a lot has happened. There were a couple times where I wanted to post something but life got busy and other times where I was being introspective and didn’t want to force a post. For me posting on the site has always been something that I enjoy and I didn’t want to force myself to write something for the sake of posting.
One of the things I noticed in the month pretty much absent of posts is that I did miss it. My writing on this site has been tied directly to what is happening in my life; during the times that I am incredibly busy I tend not to write and when I manage to have some time freed up I write a bit more frequently. Realizing that I do in fact enjoy writing on the site and want it to be successful I am going to have to make a few changes and one of them is the consistency.
The battle to get things done has been one I have always struggled with and I have finally gotten David Allen’s Getting things done and I have been reading it. Knowing that I want to continue this site and grow it I believe that in the process of becoming more organized I will be able to bring some consistency back to this site. For those of you you’ve missed my sporadic posts – I’m sorry the plan is to make them much more regular.
