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Give yourself a chance to succeed. Set achievable goals, especially early on. Pay off the lowest balance credit card first.....and then celebrate your Big Win. Repeat as necessary. Live your Life, you're not in Debtor's Prison.
Good Luck with your journey.
Last edited by FiveLoaves; 12-31-2019 at 09:07 AM..
Sounds good.
If you do not try buying with coupons.
Try the buy one get one free. For others try this and give the free one to a food pantry etc.
Buy the items on sale and stock up for the future. For example buy a three month supply of toilet paper when it is on sale.
As you mentioned you only buy what you need.
You could also put your credit cards in blocks of ice and use only the cash you have on your when you shop. Spending with cash and not cc will help cut down impulse buying.
The OP isn’t a budget so you should actually write one out. I’d considered including some “indulgence” spending if you can afford to give yourself some small reward while staying on track
If it took you a long time to get into the debt, it will likely take a long time to get out of it. It's going to require a lot of lifestyle changes, and you should also be looking at trying to increase your income. One thing I've learneed over the years is that it's very difficult to "cut" your way out of things.
SO I am throwing this out there.
I have managed the past couple of years to spend more than I made, not follow a budget, buy junk, trips, foods, that were not necessities. Now I owe a lot in Credit card debt. I won't say how much. I will say a lot. If I gave the number, some of you on this forum would faint, throw up, someone might have a stroke and blame it on me.....
SO......the budget for 2020
Meal planning every weekend. it takes an hour or so to do, but I can use the hour I would have spent watching sports programs or dirty shows to do that instead.
NO visits to the following websites, period: Ali Express, Wish, Lids, Fansedge, NFL Shop, Wayfair, Alibaba.
Groceries at Aldis, Publix and Wally World (which I hate) Using only the online purchase. All stores have a set up whereby I can order the foods I want, have them brought to the car, then taken home. This prevents the activity of myself or my kids saying "OOOooo BROWNIES " and bringing home extra impulse items that seem to prey on a lack of impulse control that I did not realize that I had. This also saves time as I can order and pick up the groceries at my convenience with less time.
As for income, well, no worries there. I have added my services to another practice so I am pretty much guaranteed 6 days of week working if I want to. So money coming in will be about 25 to 40 % higher this year than last year. That being said, spending needs to drop to a bare frugal minimum for the year.
All money from the 3rd job goes to paying off the debts. All of it . It has been placed into a seperate account to be used only for such.
Lets hope this is enough, and I welcome any tips or suggestions . when we were in college, we lived very frugally We had to. My former college roommate is a multimillionaire today because he never stopped, while I am not. Oh Well.
Sounds like a good plan! I would add a few tips:
See if you can transfer your CC balance to a 0 interest credit card. There may be a transfer fee; use an online debt calculator to see if it's worth it.
Set up automatic payments to avoid late fees and interest.
NO recreational shopping--period. Find an inexpensive hobby instead.
Like weight loss getting out of debt is simple but requires a lot of sacrifice to do. To lose weight simply eat less calories than you spend. To get out of debt spend less money than you make.
As other's said changing your lifestyle may be in order, making a detailed budget and having the discipline to enforce it, and raising your income if possible can all help.
Thanks Everyone You guys and ladies are awesome
First update is coming Sunday
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