The Dodge Family Blog » debt http://www.dodgefam.com Random Stuff about a Random Family Tue, 07 Sep 2010 16:47:06 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 Trying to be more domestic http://www.dodgefam.com/archives/49-trying-to-be-more-domestic.html http://www.dodgefam.com/archives/49-trying-to-be-more-domestic.html#comments Sat, 05 Jul 2008 22:20:43 +0000 johanna http://www.dodgefam.com/?p=49 As most of you know and I are in the process of getting out of .  With this responsibility comes some changes.  One that has really stuck out to me is cutting my grocery down to “rice and beans” I don’t really have a problem with it except this,  ever since I have been on my own I have taken my grocery money supplied the with the we need and taken the leftover money and stocked up on storage. Right now the budget is such that I can’t really do that as well. What to do, what to do. This is the big question. I think I might just have to start living on rice and beans more, because I do believe it is possible.

As for the debt! We have so far paid off all my debt, (big deal it was $500.00 in over draft. and paid for with the government check.) put $1000.00 in an emergency fund, and paid off mikes over draft! now it is time to pay off the car!!! By the way we have decided to keep it.  We put a for sale sign in the window, but decided in the long run we are better off just keeping it.

Ok now the domestic part.  My mom is amazing. She is wonder woman and is such a good example to me.  She is doing a garden this year, as usual, so it will be nice to have some fresh vegies from them. Ok here it really is. I am going to start building up a jar collection, so I can start canning some stuff for the food storage. I think the main thing i want to can is meat.  I am going to be doing ground beaf and chicken to start with.  We don’t have room for a and caning our meat is the next best thing.  So there you have it.  Stay tuned for the result show/.

]]> http://www.dodgefam.com/archives/49-trying-to-be-more-domestic.html/feed 0 Plastic Surgery http://www.dodgefam.com/archives/17-plastic-surgery.html http://www.dodgefam.com/archives/17-plastic-surgery.html#comments Wed, 26 Mar 2008 08:43:59 +0000 Mike http://home.mikezilla.us/?p=18 Last night, and I went “under the knife” so to speak. Earlier this year I lost close to 40 lbs on a she helped me with (which I will be going on again soon :-) ). Last night, we both decided that we need to lose a little bit more. So the gloves came off, we picked up the cutlery…and our debit card is no more. The “get out of ” plan has begun.

Yes, in today’s world it might seem drastic, but it is possible to live without any form of credit card at all. I cut up my regular visa a couple of months ago, and it has been alright. But we can do more. With my new , I am waiting to see what my take home pay is after insurance is taken out. But if it is anything close to what I hope it is, our will allow us to be completely debt free (except the ) fairly soon. When I did the math in January, we calculated 2 years to be debt free. It might take a little longer than that, but in the grand scheme of things, it still isn’t bad.

What does all this have to do with you? Well, more than you would think, actually. One of the reasons people find it so hard to get out of debt is that they want to spend time with their friends doing fun stuff. Fun stuff usually costs money. And they don’t have any money. So they “borrow” just a little, just this once…and the cycle starts again. We don’t want to get into that habit again.

As we begin the process of eliminating debt (blasted student loans!), we will likely decline to participate in any activities that are not in our budget. As of right now, that is pretty much everything. As we get our debt under control, we can start to make small allowances for other activities. Please be understanding and cooperative if you have a show or a sporting event you want to go to, as we will likely not be able to attend for a while…unless admission is .

Why cut up the card, though? What will that do? Well, it helps in the discipline, keeps us on track. We will pay all of our utility bills online, and we will withdraw for groceries, household goods, and childcare expenses. We have actual envelopes that will hold all of our funds for the month, and if an envelope runs out…there is no “borrowing” from another one. We can evaluate how much is in each envelope at the end of the month, and if some categories are short and others are alright, we can shuffle the money around.

Here’s to getting debt free! WOOHOO!!!

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