So, last week, we came upon a series of changes that has us re-thinking things here a bit.  For quite some time, I’ve been harassing the Lord for ways in which to speed up our debt payoff.  He answered, I believe, by leading me to a post Grayson over at Debt Roundup wrote recently.

The post, called Stepping Away Can Give You a Fresh Perspective, really resonated with me.  After reading Grayson’s article, I decided to step away from our money issues.  A few days off; no going over the budget, no looking for extra side hustle income, etc.  When I came back from this short “sabbatical” from our finances, one of the first things I did was to look again at one of our blog comments.  The gal who left this particular comment had recommended a frugal site called The Prudent Homemaker.  I’d been to this site a couple of years ago, but at that time in our lives we were not ready to make the necessary changes to our finances, so although I was impressed, I pretty much blew off this woman’s amazing advice.

This time, though, due to my “fresh perspective”, I was able to see her valuable tips in a whole new light.  This woman feeds her family of nine for between $100-$200 a month, and she knows how to live frugally in the other aspects of her life as well.  After perusing the tips on her site, I’ve found ways in which we can cut our expenditures dramatically, especially in the area of food.

For instance:  We usually buy a 10 pound bag of flour at Walmart for roughly $4.68.  I can a 25 pound bag of flour at Sam’s Club for roughly $7.58.  That’s a huge savings, especially when you’re cooking for a family of six!

Spices are another area in which buying in bulk can save tons of cash.  I can easily save 50% or more on our spice purchases if I buy in bulk and I know we’ll use it all.

Pasta and Rice?  Same deal.  My 25 lb. box of rice at Sam’s is roughly $10.58.  A 50 lb. bag is roughly $17.58.

Buying in bulk is one of our main goals for saving extra money from now on.

Also, the Prudent Homemaker takes major advantage of sales, and has maximum prices for what she’ll spend on certain items based on those sales.  For instance, I mentioned in my Thanksgiving post recently that I’d picked up a 10 lb. bag of potatoes for $1.38.  I was super psyched that I could feed our 25 guests potatoes for under $3.  But the Prudent Homemaker would’ve done differently. She would’ve picked up as many bags of potatoes as possible (based on how long they keep in her garage) and fed her family for less for a couple of months instead of for one occasion.  DUH!  Why didn’t I think of that?

Well, I am now.  We love our little Totino’s Party Pizzas when we have pizza night.  They cost between $1.38 and $1.59 at the stores around here, but this week, one store had them on sale for 98 cents, so I picked up enough pizzas to last us for a good six to twelve months.  Now I’m thinking!

We’ll also be making homemade laundry detergent.  I spend about $6-$7 a month on laundry detergent, but after buying the ingredients and the 5 gallon pail/cover for this homemade version, I spent roughly $16, and this will last me for an entire year.  Total savings?  Over $56.

This may not seem like a lot of money, but in the end, it really, truly does add up.

You see, before, I was so focused on spending less money at the moment, that I wasn’t thinking long-term about our money.  Our grocery bill for October will be a good $200 higher than it normally is, but I will spend LOTS less next year based on the good deals I got this week.  Averaging it out, I should be able to cut at least $100 a month off of our current grocery bill, and maybe even more.  That’s a minimum of $1200 extra dollars I can put toward debt next year, all with a little extra planning.

So, do you have plans to take frugal to a whole new level next year?  If so, how?

Happy Wednesday, friends!  We’ve had great weather here this week, sunny and 70ish.  The fall colors are just starting to come in, and we’ve finished up the last of our canning efforts, I think, so WOOHOO for that!  Today I’m going to kind of bounce off of a two-part series I did over at Frugal Rules.  The first part, Why So Many People Fail to Become Debt Free, was posted last week, and part 2 debuts tomorrow.    It’s important when beginning a journey as daunting as revamping your financial life that you are aware of potential roadblocks and failures before you start, which is why I wrote the 2-part series over at Frugal Rules.  But there are some other things you need to know before you start your journey to debt free. Read more

 

There’s been lots of talk in the PF blogging world the last several days on how to pay off your debt.  Anyone looking to get out of debt should seriously study tips such as those shared by Free Money Minute and Luke 1428 this week.  Any road to debt free has to start with education if it is to be successful.  Along with those crucial debt payoff tips though,  if you’re looking to truly have the follow-through to start and to finish your road to debt-free, you need to have one vitally important ingredient: hope.

Why is hope so crucial to paying off debt?  Let’s start by defining the word hope.  Webster’s Dictionary defines hope this way:

Hope: a feeling that what is wanted will happen; to want or to expect. 

If you don’t expect to pay off your debt, you can be quite certain that you’ll fail.  Why?  Because if you don’t expect to succeed at paying off your debt, then you are, by default, expecting to fail.  You have no hope.  And if you have no hope, you have no reason to make the necessary sacrifices and changes needed to rid yourself of the debt that’s hanging over your head.  Does that make sense?  Now that you understand the importance of hope in your debt payoff journey, here’s how to make hope work for you:

1.  Define the reason for your hope.  It’s time to define what you are hoping for and, more importantly, why.  Don’t just tell yourself “I hope to pay off my debt”.  Make a decisive reason for paying off your debt, as in: I want ( i.e. expect) to pay off my debt so that I can create a better future for my family/retire early/become self-employed, etc.  Whatever your reason for having hope that you can and will pay off your debt, write it down and post it somewhere where you can see it clearly on a regular basis.  Know what is the driving force behind your hope, or expectation, of paying off your debt, by using your motivational list to keep you on track.

2.  Tie your hope to specific goals.  Hope without action is pointless.  It’s time now to set those specific, measurable, attainable, reasonable, timely goals for your debt payoff plan, using your newfound hope to keep you on track with those goals.  Using a clear budget as your guide, decide how and when you will pay off each of your outstanding debts.  Make a chart if you need to so that you can display your plan clearly in order to keep yourself motivated.

3.  Use your hope.  Hope is especially important when you hit those roadblocks in paying off your debt, whether they be financial roadblocks, physical roadblocks, or emotional roadblocks.  As Luke 1428 mentioned in his post this week on paying off debt, there are LOTS of ups and downs in a debt-free journey, and it’s important to be prepared for them.  This is why it’s so important that your hope and your reasons for your hope be clearly defined.  When the roadblocks come, you need to be able to divert your attention to the driving force behind your hope: your motivational list of whys and your debt payoff chart.  Diverting your attention off of the roadblocks and onto your reasons for your hope will swell up an energy force within you that has the ability to propel you back into forward motion, if you are willing to work at it.

4.  Exercise your hope “muscles”.  Hope, like any form of strength, needs to be exercised.  Every person is different; some are motivated by fear, some by excitement, some by achievement, etc.  Use your imagination to  exercise your hope muscles to keep your motivation for debt freedom strong and solid.  For me, I exercise my “hope” muscles in two ways.  One, by fear.  I use “What if” scenarios like “What if Rick got laid off” or “What if our ability to feed the kids was threatened” or whatever.  Using fear in this form helps me not to be tempted into spending money in ways that go against what we’ve got on our budget.  The other motivation I use is more aspirational.  I dream about being able to take the kids on vacations, or I imagine handing them a check big enough for a down payment on their first house, or I imagine what our mortgage-burning party will be like.  Envisioning reaching our goals of debt free helps me to stay on track with our budget, and it also helps me to be more creative as I look for ways to trim expenses and save money.

The idea of hope sounds a bit cheesy and pollyannish at times, I know, but hope really does have a driving force behind it that is powerful and effective.  Use hope today to help reach your impossible dreams.

How does hope help you achieve your goals?

 

What?  You don’t even know me! You may be thinking.  But alas, I do know you!  Well, maybe not know you, but if you’re in debt, I know a little bit about you, because you’re probably a lot like us.

For instance, you probably never meant to have huge amounts of debt hanging over your head.  The debt probably kind of crept up on you.  I mean, I know you knew it was there, but how did it get so out of hand?  Read more

 

So, I have a bit of a motivational post for ya’ll today.  Any one of you who are currently trying to get out of debt, or have completed your debt payoff plan (yea!) probably know well the emotional and financial battles that come with a journey to debt free.  Two steps forward and one (and sometimes more) step back can make the journey frustrating and lead to thoughts of giving up altogether.  Sometimes, honestly, it feels like it would be easier to just stay in debt.  Some days you get so sick and tired of cutting costs and refiguring the budget and struggling to pay bills that ya just want to give up.  I know I do.  And it doesn’t help when most of the rest of the world thinks you’re going to fail too.  Read more

Paying off debt is, for most of us,  much more complex than drawing up a budget and tracking spending.  At least, I know it is for us.  We had committed multiple times to tracking our spending so we could find out where all of our money was going. But in our previous attempts, we wouldn’t last more than two or three days before we’d thrown in the towel.  So why is it that this time we’ve been able to stick with our pay off debt program?  I think I’ve figured it out: along with learning the basics of budgeting and spend-tracking, we’ve conditioned our hearts and our heads for this journey.

How?  Well, boys and girls, it’s your lucky day, because once again I’m going to talk your ear off in hopes that I can help you begin your own journey to pay off debt. 🙂

Here’s how we conditioned our minds to be motivated enough to stay the course.

1.  Get a true perspective of the problem.  One of the reasons it took us so long to begin walking our road to debt free (my husband and I are 43 and 46, respectively) is because we would continually convince ourselves that everything was ok.  We would use tricks like:

– compare ourselves to people worse off financially instead of better off financially.  We would look at others’ financial mistakes and tell ourselves “Well, at least we didn’t…….(go to Hawaii on a credit card, buy a $50,000 vehicle, fill the house with new furniture, etc.)  We would appease ourselves regarding our situation by finding people more financially irresponsible than we were, and thus, our debt load got bigger and bigger.

– convince ourselves that wants were needs.  Our kids “needed” sports.  And after all, they weren’t in as many sports as most kids, so it’s ok.  Our kids “needed” new clothes, when in fact, they didn’t.  Thrift store and garage sale clothes would’ve suited them just fine.  Or, we “needed” to go out to eat, buy a new this, that or the other thing for the house, or spend way more for birthdays for the kids than we had in the bank.

– tell ourselves that things would get better.  We’d say things to ourselves like “After the mortgage is paid off in 25 years”, “After Rick gets his raise”, “After the car payment is gone” things will get better.  We had no plan, and just assumed that when more money was coming in, it would be better.  But it never was.

Denial and convincing yourself that it’s okay when it’s really not okay will get you nowhere fast.  It’s time to really sit down with yourself and face facts such as:

– your total debt load

– your debt-to-income ratio

– the number of years it’ll take you to pay off your debt if you continue making  only the minimum payments.

If you really want to be debt free, you’ve got to choose to face the facts about your spending and your situation and take a good, honest look in the mirror.

2. Prepare for the role.  Once we took a good honest look at how much debt we had, we were shocked.  And terrified.  And that’s not a bad thing.  When looking to pay off debt, it’s good to have that image of just how bad things are etched into your mind for a good, long time.

When a good actor prepares for a role, it’s not just about being able to read the lines with life in them.  A good actor/actress studies the character they’ll be playing for months before-hand.  They convince themselves that they literally are the character so that they can react with the same emotions as if the storyline is truly happening to them. 

If you’re looking to pay off debt, you need to prepare for the role of a driven, determined and often desperate man/woman.  One of the ways we do this is by studying poor people.  We read a ton about people from the Great Depression.  We imagine what it must have been like searching desperately for food for your kids, or coming home after a long day of looking for some work – any work – and finding your belongings and your wife and kids on the sidewalk, crying, and a foreclosure sign in the yard.   We envision our life in those desperate circumstances, imagining literally what it would look like and what we would do if we didn’t have money to feed the kids or a place to live.

We prepare for the role of poor and desperate people, because if we’re truly honest with ourselves, that’s what we are when we have a boat load of debt that needs to be paid off.   

This kind of studying of the poor, role-playing, and “what if?” mindset helps us to stay on track with our plan.

3.  Imagine life better.  Another huge motivational too for us as we pay off debt is that we imagine what our life will be like when we “owe no man”.  (Rom. 13:8).  We make serious goals, such as having everything paid off and having a 6-12 month emergency fund, and then we imagine what it would be like if Rick got laid off, and instead of “Oh no!” we could say “WOOHOO!”  We imagine what it would be like if he didn’t have to trot off to work for someone else everyday, but instead could make his own work schedule.  We imagine what life would be like if we could do things like take month-long globe-hopping vacations (something our super frugal neighbors just did) and buy things without freaking out about the impact on our budget.  Or be able to take the kids to the doc without fearing the pending medical bills.

We put our heads in an “We don’t want to live this way anymore!” mindset, and we remind ourselves that we deserve more than being able to spend as we please.  We deserve to handle our money in a wise manner that will enable us to live in a financial situation that provides our family to be able to do the things we love, yes, but without fear of not being able to pay the electric bill next month.  We deserve to not have money and the earning of it rule our lives anymore.  And so do you, so choose to get your mindset on board and pave your own way to debt free!

Happy Monday, friends!  I’ve written a guest post that’s being featured over at Frugal Rules today, called “Secrets to Helping You Get Out of Debt Quicker.”  Head on over and check it out by clicking on the link.  Now, onto today’s post!

I’ve written lots of posts about how spend tracking, budgeting, and generally having a plan are crucial to getting your debt paid off.  But as I’ve perused the web the last six months, searching for continued wisdom on how to get out of debt, there’s one roadblock that keeps popping up over and over that is keeping people in debt.  Is that what’s keeping you in debt?

The roadblock is: Refusal to face the truth. Denial.    There – I’ve said it.  I’m going to try and be as compassionate as I can here, while still being honest.  If this post is for you, you’ll know it in your heart.  Is denial keeping you in debt?

Truth about money and spending comes in many forms:

1.  I don’t have that much debt.  Or, I’m not really that overweight.  Or, I don’t drink too much.  Or whatever your vice is.  We are free to do as we please, for the most part, on this earth.  But the truth is that there are consequences to our actions.  Not controlling your weight, or choosing to eat only processed/junk foods, can lead to diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and a myriad of other issues.  You can say that those health issues aren’t caused by the extra weight you’re carrying around, or by the bad food choices you’re making, but the truth is still the truth, no matter how much you deny it.

The same goes for your money situation.  No matter how “normal” it is, or how much less debt you have than the guy next to you, the fact of the matter is that your debt is keeping you in bondage to your credit card company, loan shark, or mortgage bank.  Your house is not truly yours if you have a mortgage on it, and your time is not truly yours if you are forced to work a job you hate because you are handcuffed to your different loan companies.

2.  I am managing my debt just fine / my debt situation is not my fault.  That may be true, but one wrong move, and your house of cards could tumble down at any moment.  Is it really fair of you to keep your debt load and your minimum payment schedule, especially when you’ve got a family?  Is it fair to the kids when you lose your house because you lost a job?  It’s not your fault?  Really?  Let me ask you a question: If you had spent the last 15 years managing your money wisely, budgeting, saving and avoiding debt, and tracking your spending,  how much cash on hand and how much debt would you have right now?  Go back and add up the last 15 years of your tax returns.  How much money has come into your hands in that time period, and what would your money situation look like today if you’d saved 10% of that money and used extra cash to pay off your mortgage instead of going out to eat, to the movies or on spendy clothes for the last 15 years?  Oh, you haven’t spent that much?  I challenge you to go back and track your spending for the last year and add up what you spent on entertainment, clothing, groceries and the like.  Seriously: be honest with yourself – how much more did you spend than you thought you were spending?

3.  It really doesn’t matter what my debt situation is.  It does if you have to find a new home because you lost yours.  It does if a job loss means you can’t feed your kids or pay the electric bill.  And it does every time you have to say “no” to something because of money, have a fight with your spouse because of money, or turn down a great opportunity because you can’t afford it.  Yes, your debt really does matter if it’s keeping you from living a peaceful life.

4.  I deserve to spend money.  This is a lie that media and advertising have used to dupe the unassuming public into believing so that they can make money.  Don’t you deserve peace and financial security more?  Don’t your spouse and your children deserve those things?  And honestly, is that trip to the fancy restaurant, or that new pair of jeans, or that new gadget really, truly making you happy?  I seriously doubt it.  You deserve SO much more than “stuff”.  You deserve a life where you can make decisions based on what’s best for you and/or your family, not based on whether or not you’ll be able to pay the bills each month.

5.  I don’t spend that much / I only spend on necessities.  Spend-tracking was our wake-up call to face the facts regarding this particular path of denial.  We went back and wrote down every dime we’d spent in the previous year on groceries, gas and entertainment.  And I would challenge you to do the same.  We thought we were being frugal, but the numbers can’t lie.  Writing down what you spend will show you where those financial leaks are.

Regarding necessities, I plead with you to get back to basics.  Kids’ activities are not necessities.  Smartphones are not necessities.   Nor are takeout meals, restaurant meals or other forms of entertainment.  Or name brand/new clothing.  Is it difficult to give up these things?  Yes.  Telling our kids “no” to things they want to do or have has been one of the most difficult parts of our decision to control our spending so that we can get out of debt.

But we know that, in the end, it will be worth it.  When we get to debt free, we are putting our family in a place where:

a.  our kids won’t have to worry about the burden of supporting us financially

b.  we can do things like take vacations, go out to eat, or buy things for the kids in a way where it won’t even touch us financially

c. we’re putting ourselves in a position where we can make big family decisions not based on our debt situation, but based on what’s best for our family

I plead with you, friends, to kick denial to the curb, and to wake up and face the truth about your money and your spending.  The road to get to debt free will indeed be difficult, but the life of freedom you’ll experience when you’re done will, from what everyone tells me, be worth every minute of sacrifice it takes to get there.

Are you strong enough to make the journey?  Which pain will you choose?  The short-term pain of making the necessary sacrifices to get out of debt, or the long-term pain of being in bondage to debt for the rest of your life?