Hi, I am new to the site.  For the short time that I have been here, there is so much great advice and information shared by all.

If you are looking for ways to live below your means and put that extra towards debt, well here are a few:

1.  I pull all of my plugs and power strips out of the walls and shut everything down completely.

2.  As I just read a minute ago in another post, I will use up all the food in my freezer and refrigerator and make some type of 1 pot meal.

3.  I have just recently decided to put any extra money that I am able to save from my utility bills unto my credit card.  For example, I allot myself $100.00 a month for electricity.  Sometimes the bill will be $50.00 or less a month.  I then make believe that I am paying the $100.00 and put the difference between the two towards my debt.  I didn't have to get a second job to just make this minor adjustment.  I try to do this with all my bills including food allotment, and it works out rather nicely.

4.  I have in the past, when paying monthly on my credit card balances, would pay 1/2 of the minimum the 1st 2 weeks of the month then the other half towards the last 2 weeks of the month.  This way, the money was being posted to the principal as well as the interest.

5.  At this point now, I have transferred my one remaining cc balance, (yippee) to a 0% interest rate for a year and just snowball every payment towards that  to finally become debt free. 

Well these are a few of thethings that have helped me and still help me.  Hope they are helpful.  I now have to go to work, but will drop by later in the day to see how everyone is doing.

Thanks for a great site and community. 

 

 

 Sound like you are doing a great job with budget and paying off cc. Keep sharing with us and any questions please ask. Babs

Really great ideas.  I have just began to snowball some of my debt and hopefully, it will pile up or should I say "shrink".

 Great tips.

We recently had some money come to us, not much but enough to pay off the T.V my DH bought us for christmas, not that we ever needed it and i remind him all the time.! anyways I toke the money we received and payed of the T.V. only one more debt to go...! Last tax season our tax lady thought my daughter was DH's boilogical daughter to, so she put my daughter down as a depedent, not the case I has my daughter from another relationship!!! get my drift..to make a long story short we now owe the goverment $2,000..YIKES! and nothing can be done about it! we just have to pay! so when i thought we were getting ahead SLAM something brought us back down..then hubby had to go on disabiliyt from work! Some life we have right now..made a payment today on the balance and am felling OK!

It's tuff right now for a lot of people, but you did the right thing by paying off the TV.  One last thing you need to worry about.

Yesterday, I got my Earthquake insurance in the mail, I had forgotten about that yearly expense, so I had to add that to my budget.

I just wonder sometimes how to keep motivated.  I look at my budget all the time, I make adjustments.  Today, I actually started my "official" snowball of my bills!  I am just grateful to have the money to do that, but it wieghs with the fact that I got myself in a mess to begin with and that money should be going in a savings account for retirement!  I am not a spring chicken.  It's stressful.  Plus I have a little one to worry about.

I wonder also if sometimes, I don't have more stress and aches and pains because of my debt load!!!!  I mean, is it makeing me sick?

Ugh.   

 

 

dmc_2008:

I wonder also if sometimes, I don't have more stress and aches and pains because of my debt load!!!!  I mean, is it makeing me sick?

 

Interesting question. Just yesterday I read an article that claimed that being in debt does make you sick.  The article is here but if you Google "debt makes you sick," you'll see a ton of articles that claim that. I'd never thought of it before, but it makes sense. 

Another question i wanted to ask was, when you go grocery shopping, what are the staples you buy weekly? Do you always but the same things, and if so do you always cook the same things with it? I'm just trying to compile a list of food items to keep my grocery bill down to be able to put more money on the debt! Answers and suggestions would be great! 

Well, I always buy bread, milk, fresh fruit and veggies (in season).  I have meat in freezer usually, but it does seem like I always make the same stuff.  Lately I was making stove top cassaroles to mix it up, but usually its a piece of meat, a veggie and some pasta or rice.

Dinner at my house is boring.  Tonight, since my daughter is not here, I had some speg. sauce I made in the freezer and put it on a couple slices of ww bread.  Not a great meal, but fast, quick and easy and no cooking!!  ;-)

I hope somebody else can answer, but usally I buy from the border of the store, no prepackaged stuff too much but my list stays pretty much the same from week to week.  ;-(

Thanks for the article Pat!

dmc_2008:

look at my budget all the time, I make adjustments.  Today, I actually started my "official" snowball of my bills!  I am just grateful to have the money to do that, but it wieghs with the fact that I got myself in a mess to begin with and that money should be going in a savings account for retirement! 

Debt "steals from tomorrow" - Even when there are 'savings' in an account; if the debt is high enough the math becomes counterproductive.
These two things are relative. 
You've done hard work to get the snowball packed, it will start rolling, though just like a building a snowman - it doesn't roll by itself - You have to push it along!
The stress may feel intense until you reach point where internally you no longer feel overwhelmed.
I was in a horrible state of mind/stress for a period of time....no fun, but probably necessary for permanent change.

Keep paddling - the boat will reach peaceful waters...