So How Long can You Stay Out Of Debt For???

Pin It I know if you are determined and persevere and just make do with whatever comes up, you can always make it and not use Credit Cards......

I am so thankful that we have no debt and have actually started are savings....I am also thankful that we have our $1000.00 Emergency Fund.......

I told Tim 3 days ago that I thought the washing machine was making a slightly different noise when spinning....we know the dryer is on its last leg....Tim already took it apart once to fix the drum somehow so that it wouldn't squeak loudly when on....well the squeak is back this Winter.....and wouldn't you know when I went to put the clothes into the dryer from the washer today....I saw they were not pressed up against the sides and seemed a little wetter than should have been....  Well I thought, hmmph, I'll just move it to spin and spin the extra water out......Why is it the spin cycle never starts off just spinning it always needs to add water first????

Anyhow....you guessed it, no spinner.......so we'll see...hubby is over in the next town picking up equipment for a customer and said he would look and see what the cost of new washers cost....I am actually hoping we can get a temporary fix through my hubbies handyman work....next year I know the government is going to be offering a Stimulus plan for appliances and Washers and Dryers are going to be included...like early spring...and we could get a big tax write off.....

In any event, if nothing works out to fix it right now, we have already 300.00 saved and I just received a refund in the mail today for a medical bill and that is another 200.00 and if we need to use part of the Emergency fund then that is what it is for...And....I know we can get a better deal by paying cash up front and by negotiating the price so .....Stay Debt Free!!!!

I am off to wring out some clothes before hubby gets home so we can at least use the dryer and take a look at what is wrong with the Washer!!!

Take care!!!

Starting the next step to Financial Freedom

Pin It Well i spent last weekend crunching the numbers and going over our budget with my husband.  The next step in Dave Ramsey's plan is to save 3 to 6 months of living expenses.  Put this money aside in a savings account and keep it there for those times when you might get laid off of work or you are injured and cannot return to work for a period of time.

So we upped our grocery budget by 20.00  Whoooo whooo!!!   That should cover just buying the milk for our family...lol...  So nice not to have to choose between milk and other items needed!!  We changed up two other areas our Home Owners Association Dues and the dues for the Grief Support Site that I run.  There is a 6 mo. biannual fee that I had miscalculated on previously so that was changed by a whopping $1 and change...

So I figured it out that with the the savings we now have each month not going to debt, YIPPEE, it will actually take us about 13 months to get 3 months worth of living expenses.

Instead of just taking the paycheck and multiplying that out times 3 and then again for 6 to equal 6 months...we actually looked at the bills we pay each month and what were necessary living expenses... so we did not include phone/internet, we did not include any web hosting or domain name renewal, we did not include the money set aside for medical bills....

We did include mortgage, electricity, water, food, auto insurance, gas, the Home Owners Association.

So 13 months for 3 months of living expenses and 25 months for 6 months....so within a little over 2 years we will have completed Baby Step #3 hopefully....

and then that will move us onto Step #4 which is saving for college.....we'll see about that one...I am not a big fan of college...not saying my children shouldn't be educated and learn skills but I think there are other ways to gain those skills than by forking out tons of money for college tuition all for them to say you are not adequately prepared!!  I have looked into a program called CollegePlus which looks really interesting, I heard about this from Crystal over at thefamilyhomestead.com.  She has had one child just about graduate from the program and another one to enroll I think, in January........but then I also believe that one should go through college debt free without taking out school loans so these children will be working and saving their money.

So we'll see about that step but after that one comes paying off our mortgage early!!!  Oh I can't wait for that to be done!!!

So anyhow....that's the agenda and I'll keep you updated on how progress is going....The hard part about trying to save the living expenses is that there are other things we would like to save up for during the next few years and purchase (i.e. a new mattress...lol....)  so it might not get done as soon as we like but as long as we keep setting some money aside it will get done.