by Claire
I know I said this post would be about the trip we took…but there’s too much other stuff I want to share!
Wait a minute—was I supposed to make debt reduction my primary focus of this blog?! I think I misunderstood. I thought this was a How To Secure Your Financial Demise blog! 🙂
Kidding! Kidding! I AM serious about getting out of debt! Exhibit A: Laundry Detergent. I made my own tonight. Gosh I wish you all knew me a little bit better so that you could laugh along with me at this image. The kids were very interested in what I was creating! But the funniest moment was when I started hacking and coughing because of all the powder dust I was creating! I’ll do better next time but most importantly, I spent only $10 on the supplies that should create laundry detergent to last through the summer! I’m so excited! I know this isn’t the only solution to paying off $100,000 in debt….but it IS very motivating and at this early point in the marathon, that’s a very good thing!
On a more serious note, we have certainly made some small dents in the overall debt. We will post updates on a monthly basis even though we are making almost daily progress! I hope this helps some of you sleep at night re: my debt. 😉 I am absolutely asking myself the very question many of you suggest, “Do I really NEED this?!” and I am finding empowerment in that process. I am so fortunate in that the debt I have is NOT the result of having over-indulged my children and as a result their adjustment will be one of the easier parts of this process. To quickly address the issue of knowing how I got here I’ll share that a HUGE part of that is divorce. I don’t recommend divorce as part of your financial planning. My divorce is easily a good $35,000 to $40,000 of my debt. Another HUGE part of my debt is paying for “convenience.” As I dissect my past spending so much of it was this facade of doing what was seemingly easier and more convenient….but cost me big time! I’m quickly growing accustomed to making changes to that facade. I’m not talking about keeping up a facade to impress others b/c I truly just don’t worry about that but instead this facade of my life running smoothly…but only b/c I was paying out the nose for “convenience!”
And finally…to briefly address comments regarding “negative” comments and my response to them: I have pretty tough skin. In my profession, I have to have tough skin. In my personal life…because I come from a gigantic family I have to have tough skin. This isn’t a matter of not wanting to hear very valuable constructive criticism from those who have been there but instead just a wish that people not try to guess who I am, who my family is, how I got here and how I plan to get out of here—after a handful of posts. I absolutely, positively do not get hurt feelings from any of the tough talking comments regarding my debt. Those are EARNED and not lost on me at all—quite frankly, the only comments I took issue with were the ramen and milk posts. In fact, I’ve turned that into a tag line of sorts “Ramen and Milk!” The meaning of that tag line is essentially “jumping to conclusions.” We are all guilty of it—and that is all I meant with my 10,000 page book comment–that until we all get to know each other, we can’t say “Ramen and Milk!” For those of you wondering, I promise my children are not eating ramen and milk at every single meal (insert chuckle here).
And so it began with making my own laundry detergent. We all have to start somewhere, don’t we? Thank you all so much for your input. I truly am implementing so, so many of them! I’m thankful for all of you! Even the Ramen and Milk crew!
I do hope you laugh along with me on this journey. Take a look at my “about me” info and you will see that humor is so a part of who I am. As Readers Digest says…laughter IS the best medicine! 🙂
Born and raised in Texas. I’ve at least driven through every state in the US courtesy of a roadtrip loving Dad.
I’m single with two children and a good parenting relationship with their father.
I am a “life is just half full of funny” kinda gal. Humor is my saving grace and I am thankful for it every single day. I have a strong Catholic faith and am thankful for that foundation.
I read a lot for a living but still enjoy a good book. I love biographies but in recent years have found the need for fun fictional books–sadly, for a long time I just didn’t enjoy fiction!
I love live theatre of any kind–from local productions to Broadway.
I love to scrapbook and pride myself in my kids’ albums.
I love being a mom but also love my career. I’m blessed to have found a balance allowing me to be at everything my kids need and want me to be at–while also having a career.
Favorite Quotes: Well behaved women rarely make history.
Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out. -James Bryant Conant
I’m very interested in the idea of paying for convenience. I think we’ve gotten so used to it that we don’t even notice that we’re doing it anymore- it just seems normal and necessary. I sometimes wonder if we didn’t pay for any convenience if I could stop working and essentially ‘earn’ the same amount of money by providing all of my own conveniences.
I’m glad you’re happy with your start! Honestly everyone here can give advice, point fingers, and judge all they want, but they don’t live your life. What works for other may not work for you, and vice versa. You have to start this journey focusing on how your decisions impact YOU, not everyone else.
On a side note I just watcha movie called “Maxed Out”. Great movie about documentary about credit card debt and people dealing with debt. Very good movie and its a big eye opener, thought Id share.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxed_Out
I’m so glad to see that you’re so positive! You’re setting a great example for others. Thanks for staying upbeat. The road to being debt free can be bumpy and have quite a few curves.
I know – seriously.
We buy ramen – doesn’t mean we eat it every day.
My pet peeve lately is people who go on and on and on in my blog when they have no idea what they are talking about (or on other’s blogs). I am a tax advisor so I have felt the same way about dumb tax advice on my blog over the years. Really, I do not need any tax advice!
I think you learn over time what people freak out about. Though I like ramen and don’t eat it very much, I would probably never mention in my blog because people do go on and on and on. Milk though? Really? I guess I won’t mention milk either. 😉
Don’t apologize for making your own laundry soap as if somehow it’s “not enough” to impact your debt reduction. Reducing debt is a lot like losing weight-you don’t lose weight making one big change, you lose weight by making a lot of little changes that add up. It’s the same with debt reduction. You’ll also try some things to save money and some you’ll like and others you’ll decide that it’s not worth it. That’s all part of the process and it’s o.k.
In my job, I work with a lot of women who are going through a divorce; many don’t have a lot of knowledge about finances. I talk to them about basic budgeting, spending money, not taking on debt and living debt free but mostly I try to get them to understand one thing: Be respectful of your money. That means that they can buy whatever they like, providing they thought about it, researched it, planned it, etc. meaning it’s not impulsive. When you slow the train down a bit and make thoughtful, purposeful decisions with your money, it’s a lot easier.
You are well on your way to eliminating your debt so congrats to you and we look forward to enjoying all of your steps.
I love your sense of humor, it reminds me a lot of me 🙂 humor is a big part of who I am too and it sure has gotten me through some really rough predictabments. People often wonder how I can laugh my way through something like the car breaking down and having to spend the next 3 months biking the 5 miles into town……sorry would you rather I cry?
I am with you laughter IS the best medicine!
Yup, it is all the little things that add up…and those help so much with the snowball effect, but don’t forget the big things.
I can’t remember if you guys own a home, but interest rates are exceptionally low – refinancing can save tons, and you don’t necessarily need to reset your loan – look into 20, 25 year loans, even 15 year – you might end up paying the same amt with a 15 year loan but cut years off the payment process saving thousands in interest.
Again, car loans can be refinanced as well if your rates are higher that 2.99% – you should check out PenFed.
There are lots of ways to cut your budget and find more money for debt repayment. Making your own laundry detergent is only one of the first. I can’t wait to hear how it works – that is one of my biggest questions about the homemade detergent. 😉
Congrats on making your own laundry detergent. When you have a big family to do laundry for that is a huge savings.
You have a great sense of humour and I think that will empower you to get through this.
Like you, everyday I ask myself how did I get so far into debt? In the back of mind I always felt that there would always be money coming in because for so many years of my life, it was. The problem was that I changed careers and the amount of money coming in dropped considerably, but my spending habits didn’t change. I sure wish I had changed way back when, but hindsight is 20/20 as they say.
P.S. my husband likes Ramen noodles as well. It is a great cheap lunch for him twice a week.
Hello and welcome to the wonderful world of blogging! I am enjoying getting to meet you and appreciate your honesty in sharing your story. To be overweight financially is much like being overweight physically. It all comes down to making good choices over and over again and also forgiving yourself for a slip up every now and then. It’s a journey – not a sprint. I can’t wait to hear your detergent story. I did this myself and ended up flooding the kitchen with soap suds when I put the cheese grater in the dishwasher. My recipe called for grating a bar of soap. My husband was very skeptical of my doing this and didn’t see the value (still doesn’t). It was a good thing he was outside when the flood of 2010 occurred. Gotta laugh! Wishing you the best as you publicly go through what so many of us are privately working through…a day at a time.
Oh no! That sounds like a Brady Bunch moment! 🙂
Sissy,
Thank you for this laugh! You had me craking up! “The flood of 2010” So funny! We’ve washed three loads with the homemade detergent so far, so good!
Yes “Tackling Our Debt” I have a friend that I discuss debt issues with and both of us had this mentality that we’d just figure out the solution at some point. That money was going to fall from the sky apparently…but now it is clear that there is no easy way out. It is going to take a lot of hard work!
Sasha-the cars are at 2.0% and the house is 5.0%–that’s about as good as it gets right now so those debts are what they are…they are a fixed expense that we aren’t going to adjust. Adjustments are happening in other areas of montly expenses—slow, but sure.
Would you feel comfortable sharing the monthly required payments for each debt, and the interest rate on each? For example, I’ve seen a lot of people getting on your case about the car loans, but if the payments on those are significantly less than the credit card bills then that might affect the advice you get.
And 2% on the car loans is really, really good!
Claire
You can refinance for under 4% on the house, that is 100bp lower. Please take the time to check that out – it will save you tons of interest.
We just refinanced our house for 3.125% (15 yr). Doing that saved us over 140K just in interest payments. It really is worth checking out – even if you think you already have a good rate. You should be able to refinance with no money in closing costs.
In terms of total interest paid throughout the loan that makes sense, but it might raise their monthly payment, which will actually make it harder for them to pay off the credit card/higher interest debt. I think refinancing the mortgage makes sense after they’ve made major headway in the other debt, or paid off that debt completely.
I should have clarified – if she shortens the term on the loan from a 30 yr to a 20 or 15 yr then she may end up raising the monthly payments, but if she keeps the same mortgage length but just lowers the interest rate then that would help as the monthly payments would decrease as well as the interest.
Thanks Sasha–I appreciate the input.