Since I'm in debt, I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to read finance books. And articles about money or getting out of debt or how to save money. As long as I don't have to read about Roth IRA's and stocks and all that because honestly I STILL don't understand all of that and since right now the priority is getting out of credit card debt I tend to ignore the whole "how to save for our future" thing. I know this isn't smart, but I figure once the credit cards are gone Jeff and I can can look into the whole stocks/bonds/money market account thingies.
Now I've read a LOT of finance books and read a LOT of debt articles. I love reading about people who have WAY more debt than me (it makes me feel smug - what can I say, I'm not always a nice person), and I also love reading about how these people get out of debt. It's inspiring and makes me want to do the same thing. And after reading these articles/books I'm inspired for at LEAST a good week!!!!
And here's a little tip from me to you. Basically all these articles and books boil down to one thing.
Have extra money? Shove that extra money at the credit card/loan of your choice until it's gone and then take THAT money and shove it at the next credit card/loan until THAT one is gone. And repeat till you're out of debt. That is IT. I don't care HOW the article or book phrases things or what kind of key words they use, basically it's take ALL YOUR EXTRA EFFING CASH AND THROW IT AT YOUR DEBT. Ideally they want you to double/triple that payment for as LONG AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE until it is gone.
Oh, and savings? Cut out the "extras". If you're like me, you've given up just about every "extra" quite awhile ago.. but SURELY these articles and books say, I can give up just a LITTLE MORE. And granted, I did not NEED the two Christmas themed throw pillows I got for my sofa, but they WERE 50% off when I got them and I can justify the purchase that way. But for the most part, there are no impulse buys at the Weiner household.
Example: we went to Babies R Us and Target this weekend with a list, coupons, and flyers. We had a budget of $100 and we got the following:
Drop Ins for bottles
2 pacifiers
2 outfits for Nathan that were on CLEARANCE - OH YEAH PEOPLE!!! CLEARANCE!!! (which can I vent that I HATE it that there are SPRING CLOTHES out right now?? Nathan doesn't need a swimsuit thank you very much, he needs warm clothes to wear to daycare and out and about!!! GAH!!! Spring clothing...)
Desitin Diaper Rash Creme
And we used our $10 off Babies R Us coupons and TWO coupons for the Desitin
At Target we got:
1 Rubbermaid Bin for Nathan's old clothes
Paper Towels
Feminine Stuff for me - and no, it's NOT ANY OF YOUR BUSINESS JUST WHAT I GOT!!!! But suffice to say I bought Target brand
2 cans of powdered Nestle Good Start
1 book for Nathan "SkippyJon Jones"
Dog food for Monty
Oh, and we looked at the clothing for Nathan and determined that it looked rather cheap and not substantial so we put it all back.
And we had $20 leftover from the $100 we had set aside. SCORE!!! We're definitely doing better and I even had $20 set aside extra so I can get my mascara. It was a GOOD day!!!
Now we just need to get some crock pot recipes together and actually utilize our kitchen more! The New Year is off to a good start!
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