Scott Wilder - ish

Another small win today! $7,000 in debt paid off!

We are also now officially under $180,000 in total debt. $179,457 to be precise.

To you it might seem like these are small insignificant steps. But to
us; each little step brings us closer to breaking the chains of
financial bondage.

I've spent enough time on the Dave Ramsey forums to know that everyone
starts strong. There's a sort of euphoria that happens whenever people
make a big life changing decision. Especially if it's a positive
change. So the challenge for me has been to keep to the program even
after the euphoria has worn off.

Now I'm no genius. But I know myself well enough to know that if we
didn't get organized and disciplined with our financial processes very
quickly; that I would fall off the proverbial wagon and go back into
bad spending habits.

So knowing that; I frustrated Kathie early on in this process by
building a high level of "automation" into every aspect of our new
financial life. Here's a few examples:

1. The last week of the month we sit down and plan next month's bill
payment strategy. How much goes to whom on which dates and from which
source of income that money comes. This plan gets printed out and
posted on the cork board for easy reference. Right now my full time
day job funds all the monthly bills.

2. From my secondary job I come home every night and give the bulk of
my tips to Kathie. The first $250 is cash she keeps to buy groceries
for the month.

3. Everything over and above $250 goes towards debt reduction and
unforeseen issues that come up like unplanned car repairs and such.

4. Every line of credit we owe is on the whiteboard so we can easily
reference our debt reduction progress.

5. Every bill that comes in the mail immediately gets pinned to the
top of a cork board with a sticky that has the due date in large font.
No more losing bills in stacks of other mail.

Working multiple jobs means I'm not home much during hours that are
conducive to quality conversation. By having these automations in
place; communicating about where our financial picture is at is as
easy as stopping by the debt reduction area in our house.

And that's another win worth celebrating!!!

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Aunt Ly and Jamie Tartell came by and snapped a few pics before taking
J.J. for a sleepover!

                             

Click here to download:

1162009_Pics.zip (3263 KB)

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Daddy couldn't handle the mullet. JJ stayed pretty chipper the whole time.

                                                                                   

Click here to download:

JJs_First_Haircut.zip (3560 KB)

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Most of you know that we're now in the part of the plan where we work
hard, and every extra dollar above and beyond what we need to pay the
bills goes towards paying down debt. It's slow and laborious. There's
no doubt about it. That being said. We're still making progress. It's
much smaller in increments. But it's real. And it's still every bit as
exciting.

Now let me say this. Kathie and I were so blessed to figure out how
bad things were BEFORE they got worse. How can things be worse than 
180-plus thousand dollars of debt? Try 180-plus thousand dollars of
debt with soul-crushingly high interest rates. Kathie and I have
changed our attitude about debt while the credit cards are still at
great low rates. What that means is most of the money we send to the
credit card companies on a monthly basis actually gets applied to the
principal.

So with the exception of the mortgage; every time we get a credit card
bill the balance goes down by more than a few dollars.

That's good.

This month is also a month of seeing some unexpected expenses come up.
With the onset of cold weather; it's time to buy new filters for the
furnace, it's time to give the furnace it's fall tune-up, and a new
filter for the fridge. Some extra unforseen traveling has also
resulted in an increase in gas and food spending. The newest expense
to rear its head is for the car. The plastic door handles have broken
off and need replacing. Fun fun.

Now as you know, we have piled up a small emergency fund. We also
aren't sending out money as fast as it comes in. So that means that we
have cash in the bank to handle these expenses. How about that? Cash
on hand. What a novel concept. Am I overjoyed that new expenses are
creeping into our budget? Not so much. Are these new items causing me
to scratch my head the way I did in the past? Not at all.

Little things really do make a big difference.

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The little man enjoys the simple thing

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Kathie will tell you that I spend way too much time staring at the
whiteboard and my spread sheets. At this point we're to the place
where there's not a whole lot more we car actively do to "make things
happen".

I'm working the extra jobs. The money comes in. The money goes out.
Easy-peasy Japanesey (Extra points if you know the reference)

Amazingly, little things keep coming along that make things better.

The latest example: I have a health spending account as part of my
church benefits package. The max I can contribute to that HSA is $5900
per year. Through a bizarre set of circumstances we've essentially
contributed the max for the year. SO\o by turning off the
contributions for the remainder of the year; we get EXTRA MONEY to
throw at the debt snowball!

What that means in practical terms is that the last monthly credit
card payment that I've been nervous about is now easily in the budget
for the next three months and the only $$$ I HAVE to bring in to keep
the boat floating is $250 for groceries. Anything I bring in over and
above goes right to the debt snowball

I've got to say that these little financial wins don't make sense to
me. It's because when I look at the white board; I see what we owe and
I don't see the total series of dominoes that fall every time a debt
gets eliminated.

Now I would never say that this war on debt has been easy. Everyone I
know makes comments that I look tired all the time. That's because I
am. Three jobs take a toll and I work hard. But I would never have
anticipated how all the pieces would fall in line. A little over a
month ago; the word I would have used to describe our household
finances would be "chaos". Now there's a very nice logic and order to
everything.

Logic and Order. Sound suspiciously close to "Peace".

And that makes perfect sense.

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For the record the can hasn't been opened yet

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