Slate Blue Vacuum We've all had those rougher than expected months, but you made it through and January is almost behind us! I hope settling in is going better and your budget is recovering!

Slate Blue Vacuum But will the move help you in the long run? Less expenses? Think big picture instead of this one month hiccup. :)

Purple Foal Yes. That's why we did it. Shorter commutes and lower utilities! I'm saving $100+/month by parking my car and taking the bus. It takes me 1/2 hour to get to work as opposed to 1-1/2 hours and the boys' school is exactly the same (30mins vs. 1.5 hrs). We are saving money. It was just a difficult thing to do in the middle of winter with very little money and dealing with a very old home with tons of problems. I'm grateful though, but it was more expensive than I anticipated for sure. Budgeting for moving with kids (and TONS OF STUFF) is a learned skill. This is only my 2nd in a decade PLUS, last year's move was cross-country and I budgeted it perfectly and came in under-budget. I just thought in-town (using family/friends), it woudl be much cheaper. I failed to account for a lot of things lol.

auntdar Focusing on what those dollars were doing before you started giving them jobs can be a negative past time. The important part is what you're doing with them now. :)

Faness I cringe when I look back to how I spent money without thinking about it. But we all need to keep moving forward! Forget & forgive the past. :)

amystylin That's one account down - and only 3 more to go - nice job! :)

Spring Green Leopard I remember the Very sobering realization that we were spending more money on fast food than I remember making in a month (well, I was in shock and disbelief at first, but it was sobering after that!). I think getting your bearings is a great first step and if you surpass that goal you can always readjust later! :)

Spring Green Leopard Sobering is a good word. Without the excess, you can't appreciate the lean. After to holidays, everyone is happy to clear away all the decorations, purge, organize, eat healthy, stay in more. Too much of a good thing is not sustainable. Just look at your past spending as too much excess & now use the tools to YNAB & all your friends on here for the roadmap to a life without debt. :)

Khaki Yearling me too! We got this 💪

Gfamily46 Simplification is good and crushing that first VISA is AMAZING! That's the momentum you need. Now start the snowball... Check out undebt.it if you haven't already to help with your payments. :)

Purple Foal Heck yeah! I do have undebt.it, but there was a problem with the YNAB sync that got resolved either yesterday or today. So I just need to import and clean everything up over there and I'll be good to go. 👍

Gfamily46 I don't bother with the sync and I find that the balance is never accurate next to my bank loan. No biggie. Easily rectifiable now that I am laser focused! :)

Green Screwdiver You got this! Debt freedom is only around the corner! :)

Royal Blue Cyborg Glad to have your hat in the ring! :)

I hope you'll include your January payments in the spreadsheet - every payment counts! 

Meg R Discover was the first credit card I got in trouble with in college. 🙈

Rooting for you to get both of those debts behind you! :)

Pixel spender I'm loving the cliches, though! If all goes according to plan, I won't be joining the freedom parade for a while longer, but I'm glad you'll be able to take that breath of fresh air! 

Also, congratulations on paying that tuition bill! That's a feat I never managed, thus the student loans. 😥

Faness I think I may have said this before.  I took loans out my first few go arounds in post secondary and it was worth it.  When I got those paid off, I decided if I went back, I would have to do it part time and work because doing it a third time would not be a good feeling since I was still carrying consumer debt.  Trying to rationalize more debt and not paying my current debt just made me see bad debt in my life until retirement. 

Getting out from under the student debt is a great feeling.  You'll get there!!  I work full time and go to school at night, so I'm in year 7 of my undergrad; which is a different toll to pay than the student debt, but there's still a cost to it, just might not be directly monetary.  HAHA!

Pixel spender Being able to find that balance between work and school, while still making it through school is a major achievement! I know we're here for the Debt Smackdown, but I hope you'll also share when you graduate - I'm cheering for all of the accomplishments here! :)

Slate Blue Network A couple of us on the team, myself included, have faced the dreaded furnace complications recently. I hope that, along with your other debts, are soon a thing of the past! :)

MXMOM I ended up drawing my own debt coloring page - it's just a flower with petals, but it's more my style and I can color each petal to show progress. 

Faness Excellent!!

Ruth Elizabeth I'm rolling anything extra into next month's payment. So, I already have about half set aside for February and will finish funding it after the month rolls over.

Ruth Elizabeth I'm trying to get a month ahead, so I'm adding any "extra" money in January towards February scheduled debt payments. If I get to the point where those are fully funded, then I'll send the leftover to debt in January as an extra payment.

Ruth Elizabeth Adding to the funding for February.  The way our HELOC works is that it applies anything to the payment due (which is about 20 days out of the month), so it won't apply an extra payment to principle only.  Very annoying.

Ruth Elizabeth I have a category called extra payment. I “park” things like this there and let it accumulate and then throw the whole thing at the debt. That way if something comes up beyond my emergency fund in the short term I have a little extra. 

MXMOM That makes sense. That's my concern, that I will make these early, extra payments and then end up needing the money for some reason. 

MXMOM I just set that up right now! After listening to a podcast today about mortgage & debt payments, it was suggested to not increase your mortgage payment until your debts are free. I had recently increased my mortgage to a nice even number weekly to save interest, when really I should be just focusing on the snowball. So I phoned my bank, and lowered it to a nice even number, then I am saving that $200 a month into my line for HELOC attack. It will park there (uncertain work situation at the moment with a strike) and once the coast is clear, I will add that to my debt. When the debt is gone, then I can attack my mortgage. :)

http://www.diymoney.org/2019/05/10/dave-ramseys-debt-snowball-yea-or-nay/

B8yBunch wow, I can't even imagine squeezing that amount out of our budget.  That is about 25% of our take home income. 

MXMOM Oh believe me, we are not "living large". I've been home raising our 3 kids for the last 12 years and thankfully have made it work on just his salary, and I just got a part-time job outside the home. So my entire income will go towards this goal -- but we'll still be "short", so any extra freelance that my husband does, or bonuses will also go towards this :) 

B8yBunch way to go. 

Steel Blue Screwdiver (e62dac0d365b) Any start at all towards debt freedom is a good start! :)

Purple Foal There is a YNAB podcast interview with her. 

MXMOM yes I listened to it and her on others too that's why I took the book out of the library. Book was better than her interviews. Quite the life journey in only 10 years. :)