Aquamarine Horse (26da1ee4a41a) I might be talking to myself a little here too, and with a lump sum coming soon I best be following my own advice now so I don’t spend it 3x before it gets here:

I generally find that the reasons I overspend are that; 1.  I’ve been so focused on paying down debt to get rid of the albatross that I have forgotten to look after having some fun for me. The worst thing about this is that if I put it in regularly it really doesn’t have to be anything very big, but if I leave it for too long I end up splurging comparatively obscene amounts on things that aren’t usually very rewarding. Enter spiral. So make sure you’re budgeting for yourself in the day-to-day humdrum. 2. When the money arrives, I can think of a dozen things to pay with it, but I haven’t kept a record of them ahead of time, so I haven’t spent the time prioritising and working out which ones will give me the most peace of mind. Worse, when I run in and pay what I remember in the heat of the moment, the excitement of that Big Balance usually ensures that I forget the most important things and once everything’s cleared I suddenly remember and get that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Keep a list on the wall - I title mine: What I Would Do If I had... and different columns for different amounts - if you get an extra $100 you’ll do different things than for an extra $2k. You may have the same categories going across, with different figures in each column. If you get an amount different than your dream amounts, then you already have a good idea where you want to focus, and because it’s in front of your face rather than in a spreadsheet in the computer, you’re keeping your goals where they stay “tangible”. You’ve got this. 

Aquamarine Horse (26da1ee4a41a) I think the best advice I've heard is to Find The Money First, or to not spend it until you know what category it is coming from and that you have the money.  There is no such thing as "extra money"- it should all have been given a job.  If you have to move money from categories that make you cringe about reducing then don't buy it.  If you have the money to spend in that category then run with it!  The phone app makes it easy to know on the go.  

Hoe that helps and good luck on your journey :)

Aquamarine Horse (26da1ee4a41a) I have difficulty with that as well! Jesse talks a lot about making your money work for you and not being controlled by it. What works well for me is giving every dollar a job and not having "miscellaneous" type categories. What that does for me is it helps me make decisions. For example, I really wanted to buy the game Subnautica this weekend. When I pulled up YNAB I saw that the only categories I had money in (I've been really bad about going paycheck to paycheck lately) were Gas and my Christmas 2018 fund. My Christmas fund is sacred to me, I don't touch it under any circumstances, and even if I'd been willing to pull money from my gas account (I wasn't) I didn't have enough there. It wasn't as easy as it sounds. I sat there for about an hour debating it, I thought "well I could just pull 25 out of Christmas and put it right back when I get paid on Wednesday".  I'm trying so hard to keep from borrowing from my future self though. I finally made the right decision and didn't buy it. I can wait and buy it on Wednesday if I still want it by then. 

Anyways, the point is that the way I see the categories in YNAB is they help make money decisions. When you find yourself wanting to spend money, ask yourself what category that money is coming out of, or which one it could be going in to if you haven't categorized it yet. Hope this helps!

WairereRose This is exactly what I do, great advice! My company gives me a bonus after each semester of school that I finish with A's and B's. I keep a budget spreadsheet in addition to YNAB for future planning. I have a section dedicated to "Spring Semester Bonus" I think ahead and partition that money out ahead of time so that I don't go nuts with reckless spending when I get it. As far as I'm concerned it is already all allocated so there's nothing extra I have to think about! In this case, I'm using my Spring bonus to build the one month buffer Jesse talks about. My big short term goal is to get to a point where my checks that come in are paying next month's bills instead of going paycheck to paycheck like I am now. 

Aquamarine Horse (26da1ee4a41a) I really liked this Wish Farm blog post: https://www.youneedabudget.com/wish-lists/ Adding on to what everyone else said, this can be a good way to find a way to get some little treats in. My achilles heel for overspending is online shopping. I've started to add things to my cart, then go see where I can move money around to make it work, and then wait some time. I don't usually end up going back to buy whatever was in my cart.

Blue Mask Ah Yes! I love filling a cart with things I would love to buy, and dreaming about processing it. Then I give myself the 24 hour cooling down period, and 8 or so months later I’ll pass by that website again and notice that my cart is full, and 9 of those 10 items I’ll delete, wondering what on earth I was thinking. It’s a rare website I go back to the next day to complete any part of the sale.

Aquamarine Horse (26da1ee4a41a) This is SUCH a good question, and I love all the responses you've received so far!

I think the advice is right on, especially:

1. Make sure you ARE allowing yourself a certain amount of $$ for Fun/frivolous things :)
2. Make yourself a wish list where you can dream and prioritize and plan where you'd like that fun money to go!

I've found both of these REALLY helpful to me mentally, because I've found that knowing I'll have a future allotment of fun $$, and getting a chance to plan out where I want it to go, helps soothe the FRANTIC feeling of needing to buy something as soon as I see a shred of money available.

Amanda Amazing work passing on the game even though you really wanted it, but realized you wanted your Christmas fund more.  I had a few moments yesterday where I wanted some clothes or other purchases and had to be firm with myself that I didn't have enough money in my category and I wasn't ready to move any around.  Sometimes I lose that battle, but I've been winning a lot more often lately!

WairereRose Thanks for your helpful suggestions and encouragement. Having a list is very helpful, and what you say is true about having some fun/taking care of myself in various ways. Better to be realistic than riding that spiral.

Blue Mask Thanks for the great advice! I actually started a Wishlist with my lovely wife in YNAB. I also realized that I am not really using YNAB in the most efficient/helpful way, so I'm tweaking things to make it easier to use as a budgeting tool. Looking forward to March and keeping it connected. 

Resistant Punch Roller Ahhh, that familiar old frantic feeling. . . I keep trying to imagine what it will be like when I'm not in (credit card) debt and have other companions. I wish this for all of us! 

WairereRose So smart! I tried this and it worked so well! Great tip and much appreciated. (And it worked despite the fact that anything I added to my cart then appeared as a advertisement on nearly every webpage I visited, including my gmail. Yikes!) 

Amanda I also wanted to thank you for the specific tips. Sometimes when we talk about debt and spending, it seems so theoretical. It was helpful for me to hear your actual negotiation process - and how you beat the urge. Hope you are having a great weekend. 

Aquamarine Horse (26da1ee4a41a) oh yeah, they don’t like to lose you. I don’t have as much issue with this as some of my friends do, perhaps because I don’t go as many other places (websites) on the computer. Basically stick to email, TradeMe, and BugCafe. I don’t get ads in the gmail app, and BugCafe doesn’t have them, and TradeMe I’m usually focused on what I’m selling and don’t notice the banners, so it didn’t occur to me.

Aquamarine Horse (26da1ee4a41a) You're very welcome! I agree with you, on paper the whole idea seems so simple! 
Step 1) Create budget

Step 2) Follow it

Step 3) ???

Step 4) PROFIT!!
In reality it is so much more complex than that though. Knowing the right thing to do and actually doing the right thing are two different things! In hindsight, I'm now extra glad I didn't buy it! It would have stretched my budget way too thin and involved borrowing from future me. What I didn't know at that moment was that future me was going to need every dollar she could scrape to pay for her root canal. Thank you past me for not screwing over future me!!
 

Anyways, if you ever have any other questions or need advice feel free to ask me :) The more I talk about this with other people the more it reinforces the ideas in my own head so it helps me too. Keep on keeping on!

Turquoise Trumpet Thank you for the encouragement. I don't know about you but every time I win that battle I feel a bit better about the ones I lose. It turns out this one was important because that 30 dollars I didn't spend I was able to put towards the surprise root canal that popped up a week or two after that internal struggle. It helps to see how it pays off that I made the responsible choice!

Amanda said:
It turns out this one was important because that 30 dollars I didn't spend I was able to put towards the surprise root canal that popped up a week or two after that internal struggle. It helps to see how it pays off that I made the responsible choice!

That's kind of funny, because paying for a root canal sounds like kind of a terrible reward for being so responsible, ;) BUT I can totally see why *having the money available* to pay for that unexpected root canal is indeed rewarding! Congrats on seeing the bright side of that unpleasant surprise!!! :)

Resistant Punch Roller Oh I know, how ironic right?? But I've spent most of my adult years in this nasty cycle of putting off the dentist (I have terrible horrible fears of dental work), letting it get so bad that I'm in horrible pain and have to go in for something, having no way to pay for it, often signing an IOU or payment plan and then never following through (leading to my unfortunate amount of collections debt) and then rinsing and repeating a year or two later.

So for the first time in my adult life I'm breaking that cycle and even though I'm terrified to go in tomorrow I know it needs to be done. I have the full estimated cost budgeted for. And my normal dentist gave me an estimate for all the work he thought I needed done and I was able to fit that in to my 2018 budgeting and debt paying off plan too. Knowing I have/will have the money available for it is helping me get in and get it done because now I have no excuse anymore haha. 

Flexxx P. yay!!!  glad you're here!

Flexxx P.  Coming in to the game with about $111k in debt($87k in sudent loans). Aiming to clear out $12k in 2018.

Graylibre yay!

Graylibre March check in:

Soo... I added $868 to my wife debt as we had to book tickets for a holiday coming in September and she paid for it.. sigh I know. A bit of a set back. I paid it back already.

The good news is even with this, I am still making tracks on my debts!

I've been very very good not buying things on my credit card, even with a load of tempting 10-20% offers on ebay. Nup, nope and no-way! :-)

Next month I plan to pay off at least $1000.

Current debt level $3800 on CC, $797 to wifey.

Total: $4597

Graylibre  July check in.

I dropped off a few months there, but I'm back and I'm BADDDdd (like Michael Jackson BAD)

Current stats:

WAS : $4500 on CC, $700 to wifey

NOW :  $3430 on CC, $1036 to wifey (I know, two steps forward two steps back.

Total current debts : $ 4,466.00 - I mean this when I say it, I'm going to end 2018 DEBT free with at least $2000 in the bank. The buck stops here! I'm making it happen!
 

September check in

Again, dropped off a couple of months with updates but have made some more progress! I've since closed one CC account. I have two credit cards now, one with $0 balance I am considering closing, and one with $3000 that I want to pay down. Considering we went on a two week holiday in September which I paid for with CASH, I am really proud of my achievement!

Current stats:

WAS:  $3430 on CC, $1036 to wifey

NOW: $3000 on CC

Total current debts : $ 3000.00

 GOAL: 31/12/2018 DEBT free with $2000 in the bank. 

Graylibre October Check in.

Still getting there! Trending downwards, and on track! Looking forward to calling my credit card company to cancel this card. I never want to use a credit card again. Feeling really good! BTW I have the $2000 saved... I know I could use it to pay off my debt but as the credit card is zero interest, I'd prefer to get used to the feeling of having my own money around to draw off, not some bank that charges me interest on everything. BTW I closed the card with $0 balance... they never make closing a CC account easy! 

WAS $3000 on CC, $0 to wifey.

NOW $2660  on CC

Total current debts : $ 2660 

 GOAL: 31/12/2018 DEBT free with $2000 in the bank. 

WairereRose Great work! Just an FYI - a link to the Google sheet is at the bottom of the original post for the 2018 Debt Smackdown (this thread).

MicroSpice thank you. I found it and have saved it and deleted the 2017 one.

WairereRose such amazing persistence!  Well done!

Navy Blue Unicorn Thank you Navy Blue Unicorn. There are days I have to remind myself it’s like my weight loss journey, and things will go backwards sometimes. Usually with the weight loss that’s right before my next huge drop, so maybe I’ll see a few of those this year as well. I’m hoping to reach my weight loss goal by the end of this year, and like my debt reduction goal, if I can just stay steady there’s a good chance I’ll hit both. The difference is, with my weight loss I can continue to manage what I eat. With my income I’m down $200/week since September last year - basically the rent each week. Makes the debt reduction look impossible, but the impossible is my specialty. Miracles take a little longer. I refuse to get discouraged, for more than a few minutes at a time anyway.

Ruff16965 (05bd62cee897) 

When you open the spreadsheet, look at the tabs on the bottom (there are 5). The 3rd tab is "YTD Debt Progress Chart." You can look at all users and also click on your own name in the pull down tab to see your progress including what remains for the current month. 

Violet Drill awesome!!!!!  such great progress and commitment!

Violet Drill Great job not blowing your bonus but using it to get ahead!  awesome focus :)

Violet Drill Fantastic!! Very inspiring! 

Cadet Blue Barnacle Glad you are here & good luck!

Amanda hooray!  that is great!

Amanda Im sorry you need a root canal and hope you will be pain free afterward! Awesome work rolling with the punches and continuing to pay your debt!

Amanda said:
It feels so good to be getting it back to them responsibly and knowing I'm not repeating the past!!

CONGRATS, this is an AWESOME feeling!!! I am working on this too, and it does feel amazing! We are setting ourselves up to make different choices now & in the future, and that is huge!! :)

Resistant Punch Roller Your comments always make me feel like giving you the most gigantic high five!! Thanks for always being so encouraging haha

Amanda I *love* these forums and this thread in particular, because I find if I don't keep my spirits up about this whole thing, debt paydown can be so awfully depressing. So thank YOU for giving me extra reasons to cheer and get excited along with you! HUGE high fives for sure!!! :)

Resistant Punch Roller The encouragement really does make a huge difference. This is a great place to celebrate our accomplishments and pick each other up without judgement when we stumble. I've never been able to see the light at the end of the tunnel before now but I can and that's really exciting!!!

g.359 great start!!!  At that rate, you'll be finished in August!!

g.359 Fantastic!!

Danielory That's fantastic!!  Keep up the great work :)

Danielory That's fantastic! I love to hear about your planning and how you and your husband are working together. Very inspiring!

Turquoise Trumpet Thank you! 

Aquamarine Horse (26da1ee4a41a) Thank you! This board has made us accountable and inspired us to meet our goals...I can't wait till the end of each month to update the spreadsheet lol

Amanda well done Amanda

Amanda awesome!!!

Ruff16965 (05bd62cee897) Ruff16965 (05bd62cee897) what a great start! The rest will come quicker for having kicked that lot off the top first. 

Ruff16965 (05bd62cee897) I’m impressed that you advocated for yourself by disputing debts etc. that takes determination and patience, but will help you succeed! 

Ruff16965 (05bd62cee897) Well done! Knowing where you are at is half the battle.  Now that you have a plan and worked hard to get your total down, it just a matter of rewarding yourself with a lower balance every month!

Aquamarine Horse (26da1ee4a41a) I am on medicare, 100% insurance no copay, so I should not be getting medical bills 6 months to 18 months after a procedure or being turned over to collections. So for the dispute all I do is bring this fact to their attention and the collection agency more often than not either forgives it or drops it like a hot potato back into the doctor or hospital's lap.

Aquamarine Display I've added it to the list

ISuckatMaths Debt payment is a journey that often has detours and bumps along the way.  As long as you get where you are planning to go then thats what matters!  

Turquoise Trumpet haha very true. One thing I'm glad about, which I completely owe to my ynab training is that my debt does not last long. The amazing thing about being aware of spending and using programmes like ynab is that we get better and better at the amounts we do have debt on. I know for myself I was close to 20k in cc debt when I started ynab, but through developing good habits and using ynab since then my cc debt was non-existent. 

Turquoise Trumpet Great job making a plan ahead of time! Deciding on where you want to use the money ahead of time is different than counting on it/budgeting it before you have it, IMHO and it's easier to stick to your guns if you know it's going to be coming in & going right back out again.

Turquoise Trumpet That's great! When large amounts of money like this come into our possession (tax refund/work bonus), I've learned not to get all excited about it because it's already spent...used to make me sad at first, but in the long run it's gotten easier to send that money out as a payment as soon as it hits our account. Watching that debt get knocked out is SO REWARDING! YOU GOT THIS!

Keith Borders Yay! No more yellow, and that green bar is getting nice and small 👍

Keith Borders woot!  well done!

boodles8 Nice progress!

boodles8 amazing!!! well done!

TheTabby Awesome progress and rolling with the punches!! :)

TheTabby I know how you feel about getting a big car loan out of your life. A couple of years ago we were able to sell our well-kept 2014 Ford F-150 to my dad at a good price while still getting some cash back from the sale (WIN/WIN :)). Really missing the space tho, as I now drive a VW Beetle (which was bought used on a whim since it was my dream car in high school and my husband decided it was a great idea to fulfill my dream a year ago lol; we still owe about $7k on it and plan to pay it off by this June), but def not missing the $20k debt from the truck. Cars have always been my husband's weakness-we've gone thru a few and then some so it's always been a  source of debt for us, but I'm really proud of him for sticking with his 2008 Lancer (which he bought used several years ago and is paid off). He's holding off and patiently waiting until we pay off our debt and have a house of our own and then he will probably splurge on the well-deserved sports car he's saving up for. Sorry for the rambling lol

Ruff16965 (05bd62cee897) I would go with entering it each month with the other payments, because it isn’t actually paid yet, and what if you change jobs - will the amount change?

WairereRose Actually on SSDI and the $75 comes out of my benefits regardless, it could be less but I asked for that amount after living with what I was getting for a couple of months I had them increase it. I continue to amaze me case worker, she has said several times she wishes more fathers were like me in handling their cases.

Ruff16965 (05bd62cee897) No sense changing what you’re doing then.