We had been working hard on our debt snowball, however the last couple of months haven’t gone well. We had some larger expenses, which we were able to pay cash for, but it left our debt pretty static. This has just been weighing on my heart lately.
Not to mention we have the remaining balance on Disney and tuition starting next month. We had been hoping to have Daddy’s car paid off before summer was over to cover tuition, but it didn’t happen. Our medical year just started over July 1, which means we should have about $6k in medical debt pretty soon, as I tend to rack up my deductible pretty quick. And we are still paying off previous medical bills from an unexpected ER visit.
I know without a doubt the money stuff will work out. It always has. As you know, three years ago I quit my job where I was making more than half of our household income and God provided in miraculous ways. We always have our home and food paid for, so I am not worried. I know it will work out.
It’s not that I am worried about the money, it’s more that I still feel so guilty about the debt in the first place. I am ashamed at the poor decisions we’ve made in the past, and I cannot wait to put those bad choices behind us. When money gets tight, it just feels like a daily reminder of what we’ve done wrong.
I know I need to keep perspective, because the reality if money is the worst thing we’ve done, we’re doing alright. I am really starting to wonder if we should have gone to more extreme and sold everything from our house. True Damn Ramsey style. The things in my house serve as reminders of special things in my life, but they are not the special things. They are not the people who make me happy, nor are they the memories.
But then I start to wonder if selling my stuff would really make a dent in the debt anyway. We honestly don’t own much that has value to anyone but us. Hmmm. Lots to still think and pray about.
On a side note, just as Daddy and I have been working through this, our mortgage company called out of the blue and said we might be able to refinance and save money each month. We have our house financed through the credit union, and the loan consultant we worked with last time shared with us that she doesn’t make commission, so when we went through the refinance two years ago it was a very stress free and easy process because we didn’t feel any pressure from her. We have always done 30 year fixed loans, but we are considering a 15 year fixed. Our payment is affordable for us right now, so if the rate is lowered enough our hope and prayer is that we can be close to our current payment with a 15 year loan.
Have any of you looked into a 15 year loan, and was it worth it? Or is it better to just pay it down faster? It just seems like we have good intentions when it comes to paying things down faster, but they don’t get paid down as fast as we’d like.
Anywho, feeling a bit overwhelmed, but very faithful in Gods plan. I suppose I am just getting impatient, and thinking about what we have done, and what is left to accomplish makes my brain feel like mush. And then I start to glaze over.
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I no longer wonder where that look he gives me comes from.
You are in good company… we too are working on becoming debt free a la DR. It’s interesting you just wrote this post because I have been feeling the same exact way. It is a slow process (especially for our family of five living on one income), and the progress seems minimal in the short run. Then you add to it the culture we live in, and that can easily push one over the edge! It gets old after a while huh? But when I look at how far we have come that makes me smile! And when I think of the freedoms we will have when we owe nothing, that makes me jump up and down with excitement!! That is what keeps me going. I am right besides you guys cheering you on!!!! 🙂
Oh.. and in regards to selling your belongings, I speak from experience when I say it’s not easy and I would at all costs see if there are any other options. I still mourn the things I sold that had memories behind them. I was so depressed after we did that I ended up getting physically sick for several days. It was however a great learning experience. I had turned my house and home into an idol, and God had to painfully strip me of these things to refocus me on Him and where I should place my value, my joy, my energy and everything else I had put into building it up to what it had become.
That’s good feedback, Talia – we don’t NEED to sell anything at this point – I was just considering it to move this process along a little faster.
I *think* I wouldn’t care, but then I am sure when people were taking things off my wall that I remember picking out with my kids, my guess is it would be hard. But, harder than being in debt!?
*sigh* as you can see I keep going back and forth ~ which means I should probably wait until I have a clear sign it’s what we should do.
Check your loan terms. oftentimes making additional principal payments on a 30 year loan will pay you off faster then refinancing to a 15 year. it depends on the interest break you get, refi fees etc.
Think about if you can lower the minimum payment enough and still pay the current payment how much “extra” you are paying each month.
Also check your loan for prepayment credits. if payments are credited on day recieved, make partial payments each month and youll save intrest. IE if your mortgage payment is $2000 a month…500 a week will save you money and cost you nothing more out of your regular budget.
If i remeber right it was said you can pay a 30 year off in about 12 years, without laying out any more per month. Thats the strategy alot of those “debt buster” places use and you can do it yourself.
Tim,
We are not to our house in our debt snowball, so we are not going to pay anything extra to them. In order to get to the point where I pay them weekly, as in your example, I would need to pay for the month, and a week later pay for .25 of next month. We do not have that in the budget while keeping to the debt snowball.
That is, however, very similar to what we’ll be doing once we are on the mortgage portion of our debt snowball. 😀
Talia – I just re-read what you wrote, and I suppose it feels slow right now because we are on the larger debts … so it’s longer gaps in between payoffs. BUT, I can count the people we owe on one hand, so that’s good, right!?
That is more than good!! We too can count our debts on one hand. But of course it’s the big ones now!! It just seems like a long time to me when we have been scraping by on the minimums to be able to attack our debts. Rice, pancakes, and faded out of style clothes get reeeeally old during year two!!
So do you have an estimated pay off time? We are shooting for Dec of 2011… but hopefully sooner if I can be ultra disciplined. After we finish paying everything off we are taking our family on a Disney cruise!!! Can’t wait!
Talia ~ The debt snowball calculator I am currently using is not accurate, as it doesn’t add the payments onto the next bill once it’s paid off. I took FPU online, and I didn’t save the calculator file before it expired and now I don’t have access. I am sure I can find a better one online, but haven’t invested too much time into it … as we are no where near the date! Maybe I’ll dig one up now as motivation …
We have not been as disciplined we had hoped, but we are refocusing and that feels GOOD.
We are going to Disney in October … I really wanted to go before it lost it’s magic, and Monkey will be a bit old for it by the time we are debt free, so we made the choice to go. We have never done a family vacation before and my friend is a travel agent and gave us her time share for a week as a trade for a family photo session … so we jumped on it!
I would love to do the D cruise as well – we didn’t cruise this time since Caterpillar is too young for many of the activities. Perhaps that can be the carrot we chase next!! 😀
So I just checked it out and we will be done with everything (including the house) by 01/21. Just in time to buy Monkey a car. 😉
Everything except the house will be 12/13. Darn student loans!!
That is FANTASTIC that you guys are soooo close. Not too much longer!! Can’t wait to see you celebrate!!!
But is that payoff date including your house being payed off? We don’t have one of those!! 🙂 we use the Crown Financial system called Envelopes and we have pretty much scored gold with it. I am able to budget and manage our $ to the penny plus it has an area that tracks all our debts and payments and does an automatic roll down effect. Anyways it is one of the best tools I have come across, debt or no debt. You do have to pay for it however it is really inexpensive and I have a code for 75% off… So let me know if you guys are interested!
That does include our house. We use Crown Financial Mvelopes. Is that the same thing? It is basically the DR plan, but online?
If so, we LOVE them. It’s great because Daddy can jump online while he’s at work to know where we are at with everything. I too would highly recommend them!
Bummer on the coupon code ~ Someone should put that to good use!!