debt= defeated

[Oogiem]

last year this time i was over 20,000 in debt.

got paid last night, and the little 'net worth' section of mint went from RED to GREEN.

That is really awesome! COngratulations! What an accomplishment.

Now, an assignment, go read the Millionaire Next Door so you stay in the green. :-)

[ajdelaware]

I dream of making this thread. One of my goals this year is to do enough photo work to pay off my school loans....its a lofty goal, but they hsould be shouldn't they?

[aj_rock]

Congrats on getting out of debt!

Now to get to 20k UP

[Pat G]

How spezzy got out of debt so quickly: A high paid bodyguard for wanna be important people in Boston perhaps? With all that power, thats bordering on superhero status.

[StrengthIsBeauty]

ConFreakingGrats!

[spezzy]

How spezzy got out of debt so quickly: A high paid bodyguard for wanna be important people in Boston perhaps? With all that power, thats bordering on superhero status.

hahahah no!

If you don't mind me asking, how were you able to get out of debt so fast? Because that's freaking amazing.

so sorry for the late reply here, but:

*I stopped walking into stores. This alone saved me a ridiculous amount of money. Seriously. I would go in to Target for shampoo and walk out with $150 worth of stuff I didn't need.

*Buy things in bulk, online. I got Amazon Prime. It's $79. I don't care. It gives free two day shipping on a lot of things. I get everything shipped. Not only do I have to think about what I'm buying, but I shop around more for a decent price instead of being at a store and going "well I could get it cheaper elsewhere but I'm here now" Basics like shampoo and toilet paper I get at the grocery store. This also saves gas money because I dont have to drive to the store.

*For food I buy what's on sale that week, not what I want to eat.

*I only go 'out' once every 6 weeks or so. And when I do, I do so frugally.

*I put everything on one credit card, including all of my bills. This is a points credit card with cash back. In December I had like $500 cash back to use towards my bill. Awesome.

*Also, everything going on one credit card makes me realize how much money I'm spending, since it's not $5 here and $5 there as separate transactions. It's "Holy Crap I spent $700 this month. Why!"

*I sold a bunch of things on eBay and Craigslist. I now have a thing that if I want to do something, I need to sell enough stuff to cover the cost of doing it.

*I picked up a contract job and put the money 100% towards debt.

*The day I get paid, I pay all of my bills that are due until the next pay day. I keep like $100 in my checking just to prevent overdraft, but every other penny went to debt. I then buy everything with a credit card. I know it seems counterproductive to pay extra towards a credit card and then have to use it, but your new purchases dont get interest on them for the first billing cycle... Plus, theres something mental when you're at the store and you only have $100 in your checking vs. having $1000.

I think that's it

I have some spreadsheets I use and can share if you'd like.

[tatpunk]

That's awesome! And a great plan!

[bigm141414]

I have some spreadsheets I use and can share if you'd like.

This thread is sorely lacking graphs and pie charts....

[Guest guest4729]

I have some spreadsheets I use and can share if you'd like.

I would totally love some spreadsheets. You can e-mail them to awsd00@gmail.com if you don't mind!

[Pat G]

I have some spreadsheets I use and can share if you'd like.

Yes please. If it worked i'll definately try to use it.

[The Tin Man]

Awesome job Spezzy! I hit green a couple months ago and it feels great! I still need to kill the student loans though. That's probably my birthday present for next year.

[Oogiem]

*I put everything on one credit card, including all of my bills.

So glad to see this. So often the recommendation on budgeting is to use cash only but I'm with you, cash just leaks out of my wallet but the credit card is an immediate feedback on how much we've spent. We use one that offers points back to a store we frequent regularly and are saving the points for a special item but the concept is the same.

[bigm141414]

So glad to see this. So often the recommendation on budgeting is to use cash only but I'm with you, cash just leaks out of my wallet but the credit card is an immediate feedback on how much we've spent. We use one that offers points back to a store we frequent regularly and are saving the points for a special item but the concept is the same.

Oogiem, yeah I think the whole no credit card thing is a left over issue of the pre-internet banking era. Now with cards having almost instantaneous feedback and easy to use tracking and graphing tools it's way better to use cards than cash. Plus cash creates loose change which is always getting lost in the couch. The couch doesn't need any money, it's a couch!

[spezzy]

So glad to see this. So often the recommendation on budgeting is to use cash only but I'm with you, cash just leaks out of my wallet but the credit card is an immediate feedback on how much we've spent. We use one that offers points back to a store we frequent regularly and are saving the points for a special item but the concept is the same.

Yeah. I had originally done it because all of my bills (including rent) were due at the beginning of the month, and my credit card was due on the 22nd. So I set it so that all of my bills (except for rent) came out of the credit card, kind of to spread out when everything was due (I couldn't pay rent and bills out of one pay check, and at that point, if it was in my account, I'd spend it, so saying 'save it from the patcheck before' just wasnt an option).

Now I get a ton of stuff all the time for free just because I spend so much on credit cards (all my normal bills).

[ajdelaware]

My plan is to pay off my cc balance, and then take the payment I make on that every month and add it to my student loans. I think I have $30k in student loans, and If I can book a good amount of shoots this year, I can hopefully cut that in half.