My Journey to being Debt Free

I decided to do some reading - really it is research on the best ways to raise my credit score. What I found is that most financial experts recommend paying off the high balance high interest items first. I don't agree with that for myself personally. I want to see the positive as quickly as possible. So I will continue to pay off my lowest account first. Which will raise the score slowly but effectively. See I feel as long as I make an extra $1-$5 payment on the minimum balance I am adding a little more to the interest charges on those high balance/high interest cards. The sooner I pay off my low balance cards; the quicker I have an extra $25 to $45 dollars to use for the next card. It will slowly add up to where eventually I can keep a little back for the emergency fund and still be able to pay off a card a month for about 10 months. At that point I will be at the higher balance cards which will take a little while longer to pay off. I will be able to knock them down rather quick...

So let's go over my budget breakdown. We will cover weekly and monthly items. I cover somethings weekly and my husband covers the monthly items. I am sure that doesn't seem fair, that is how it has been ever since we got married and started getting credit cards and a car payment. The following weekly items will be paid or set aside every week and they are as follows: Personal Loan Babysitter D. Attorney Boys Visit D. Cigs PS4 Diapers D. Cell Phone Doctor Visits T. Life Insurance Vehicle Fuel After doing all the weekly bills we are left with about $75-$105 a week to make it to the next week. Since some of the money is going to savings for bills in the future we will be fine. Plus since the main item we can't really stock up on is milk, that is the one item we will know for sure we have to purchase each week. We are currently purchasing about 3-4 gallons a week and the current price is $1.89 a gallon.  The following monthly items are paid at the end of the m...

Today was a visit with my three older boys. I was worried for a moment that we wouldn't have enough money to do anything when I received the lunch bill for $74.15 plus tip which I left $10. I got lucky by having a $25 gift certificate which brought the total down to $49.15 then $10 tip made it $59.15 and I got $0.85 back. Yay for some kind of change! We went to the bowling alley since it was the last weekend for Kids Bowl Free All Summer and the place was packed and it was an hour wait for a lane. So the kids played black light mini golf instead. My daughter played 2 rounds and the boys played 3. It was a good deal since the price was $3.95 per person for unlimited golf. When we left we had $20 out of what I had budgeted for. I was going to take them to get milkshakes but I swear I heard the boys say they didn't want them so I told their dad we were done. Apparently only my oldest son said he didn't want one. Ooops! Anyways we have a starting balance of $20 for the next v...

Ah! Car payment hasn't cleared yet and they don't have it yet. Mailed it on Wednesday. Normally when I mail it on Wednesday it clears my bank by Friday. I'm giving it until Monday to be delivered to them before I stop payment on the check. I was told she made a note that if they get the check Monday to call me and if I don't hear from them by then I will take cash over to make my payment. I am so close to this being paid off that now I feel like the universe is trying to screw me over or try my patience. I will not be kicked down at the start of this or this close to having the vehicle paid off. It will be $25 I did not budget for to stop payment on the check, however I night not have a choice. The waiting game all weekend is going to stink but I got this. I might be kicked at the moment while feeling like I am already failing but I am not down. This week I can move a little money around to cover the cost. I can honestly say though if I had not started this bud...

Good Day! It's a wonderful feeling to see the first credit card paid off "IN FULL"! The payment has cleared the bank - so it is officially paid off! It feels amazing! Also my cell phone is paid off and I cancelled insurance on both my phone and my daughter's phone. She asked me to cancel it as she wants her cell bill cheaper as well. She babysits her brother to pay on her cell phone bill and earn a little extra cash for herself. If she didn't help with her brother I wouldn't be able to work the extra 2 days a month. So let's talk about how this will work for the month of November. I have my Excel spreadsheet all set up plus I have the Everydollar  app all set up as well. I will be making credits and debits to the different groups as they happen - at most two days in advance (i.e. when I know for sure a certain bill will be coming out). This way I can keep track of how much we are actually using for each item. I had a small issue with one category an...

   The other day someone told me that I could never pay off my credit card debt by myself or in 3 years. My credit card debt goal is 18 months. Which is completely doable if I follow through with all my carefully laid out plans while also saving money for an emergency fund. So I am going to prove them wrong by proving myself right. I am not doing this for them - I am doing this for ME. If you try to do something for someones benefit beside yourself; it will 95% of the time fail. You have to do anything in life for yourself first.  I sat down looked at a rough estimate of next week's money coming in. I wanted to see a full account of where the money was going. We are able to pay off the first credit card next week! The card is closed but mainly because the stores closed. Toys R Us will be paid off in full next Wednesday. So 1 down many more to go. Next week the cell phone bill comes due which means my last cell phone payment is done and the insurance is done. I will be c...

    Welcome to my blog about how I am going to get my family out of debt and trying to do that in 3 years time. First a little bit about us - I am a female in my mid-30's, my husband is in his late 50's and between us we have 9 children. His children are grown adults so that is a bit easier and only 2 of my children live with us. My other four are in our lives but not in our home.  So I was thinking I am sure at some point in time most of us have that moment, where we look at our finances and wonder "How did this happen? Where did I go wrong?". We went from no debt to struggling to make ends meat. Well this moment happened for me a year ago. I sat down to make a budget, but that will only work if you follow it. Now here I am a year later and not any closer to being debt free and in fact I have more debt than I did a year ago. My husband just tells me  I support whatever you decide on this dear. I love him for being so sweet. Our monthly income is more than...