Are you “Stick-to-it-iveness”ly Challenged?

One of the hardest parts for me of our “Getting Out of Debt” Plan has been dealing with the fact that I’m a bit ADHDish.  My mind is constantly hopping around from one thing to another, and although new and great ideas come often and easy to me, sticking with them through to the end is a whole other issue.  I get bored easily and need to switch gears a lot.

Our process of paying off debt has been a similar experience for me.  At first, I was just plain excited.  Conquering our debt and our spending issues was a challenge, and I’m a “bring it on” type of a girl.  In that first month or two, I stayed excited as I watched the numbers go down, both in our spending and our debt, and as I saw our financial picture changing for the better. Read more

 

Ok, yes, I know it’s April 4th.  I’ve been a little hesitant to set goals for this year for 2 reasons:

1.  We’re in such a tight situation financially right now that it’s difficult for us to even put any extra towards credit card debts, much less think about goals.  Up until now, our goals have been to pay all of our bills every month and not use credit any longer.

2.  The stubborn side of me HATES to fail, so I know that whatever goals I put down here will have a large chance of being met, even if it means we don’t eat for a month (Of course ya’ll know I’m kidding.  Ok, half kidding.  The kids can survive on dandelion leaves for a few weeks, can’t they? 🙂 ) Read more

“Money is for people who don’t play well with others.”

 

That’s what I saw on a bumper sticker yesterday, and I have to say, it gave me pause.  I can’t judge the owner of the car that wore this bumper sticker, but it was a nice car.  Newer than ours.  A nice looking SUV.  So, they obviously weren’t struggling.  Or, maybe they were.  To me, this statement represented one thing: yet another excuse for people not to take control of their financial lives. Read more

Yeah, I know: the title’s cheesy.  But stick with me here, it’ll be worth it.

For the second time this month (ok, more like the 20th), I contemplated blowing a hole in our budget and going on a family outing in order to deal with the getting-out-of-debt stress.  It all started innocently enough:  We had a great time at a bowling field trip with some homeschool friends, for which my amazing kids promptly saved up enough money in order to cover the bowling and gas costs, knowing that it wasn’t in our budget.

Then we ran a bunch of other errands, one of which included heading to see the tax man.  Good news there too: enough back to cover some extra expenses we’ve had over the last two months, and then 2k on top of that which will establish an emergency fund for us.  We met up with my mom and did some things for her, she took us out to an early dinner, we made a Walmart run and headed home.  A long day, but a good day.

I’m not sure what happened in between Friday and Saturday, but on Saturday I kind of lost it again.  I was once again overwhelmed with the stress of facing up to our debt crater, and Rick was out of town fishing, and I just lost it.  I made up my mind: the budget was going out the window and we were going to blow $50 or so to go to the movies (4 kids, one of which qualifies for an adult ticket, some popcorn and snacks, and it gets expensive.  And no, you can’t go to the movies without buying popcorn.  It’s just against the rules.  :-)).

I looked up which movies we might see, available times, and even checked out the movie review site we used in order to make a final movie decision.

And then I woke up.

Reality hit.  What was I thinking???   We have absolutely no business going to the movies!   We’ve got a crapload of debt, and we’re in no shape to spend that kind of money on frivolous junk we don’t need right now.

And just as soon as it hit, the craving to trash the budget passed.  And that’s when I realized that this process of getting out of debt is going to require us to deal with regular battles……with ourselves.

I guess my point is that if you are contemplating a journey to get out of debt, it’s important that you expect to have to fight with your own will.  Your own cravings.  Your own rebellion.

But if you really want to win the battle to debt free, it’s more important that you win those fights.

Because every time you choose to give in to those rebellious, scared, or overwhelmed feelings it means another month of staying in debt.  And you deserve better.

 

One of the hardest things, for us,  about choosing to stop spending and get out of debt is the impact it has had on our children.  We’ ve eliminated about 95% of our activities, entertainment and field trips.  Unless we find a ridiculously good deal, clothes are purchased on a need-only basis. Read more

  One of the best ways, IMHO, we can stay motivated on our journeys to debt-free, is to simply learn from others.  And I think if we’d keep our eyes open, we’d find learning opportunities in lots of unexpected places, which is what happened to me the other day.  Read more

I just read a great response post from Holly over at Club Thrifty.  She was referencing a recent NY Times article which basically said that we may as well not even try getting out of debt and saving money, because we can’t, and it’s just not our fault.

People, this is a load of crap.  Don’t let the victim-mentality based media deceive you into staying poor and in debt!

There are thousands of families that are living proof that this gal doesn’t have a clue about what she’s talking about.  They’ve proven her “theory” wrong.

And by sticking to our Depression-Era budet, we’ll do the same.  We by no means led a frivolous lifestyle, at least, not when you looked in from the outside.  But because of a simple case of a lack of tracking our expenses, we blew a crater into our budget and wasted several thousand dollars last year on fast food, driving our car and not sticking to our grocery budget at the local grocery store.

My friends, it’s these little hidden expenses that are the cause of your failed financial picture, not the economy or anything else!

I’ve read hundreds of stories of those who’ve won their battle with debt or are on their way to winning, and all of them, through layoffs and all sorts of other uncontrolled circumstances, have won or are winning their way to financial freedom simply by implementing a strict budget and sticking to it, no matter what.

And do you know what?  You can do it too!  You can learn to have control over your money instead of letting it have control over you and your life.

I plead with you: don’t let the naysayers fool you – you can get out of debt and have financial peace!  Will it be difficult?  Yes.  Will it take discipline and self-sacrifice?  Absolutely.  But it’ll be worth it on the day that you wake up and can say “I’m free!” and not owe anybody anything anymore!

 

SO, you’re finally here: You’ve made the decision to make a budget, track your spending and get out of debt.  But what happens when real life throws temptation your way?  How can we make sure our good intentions turn into great results?  Here are a few thoughts: Read more

Welcome back!  Ok, yesterday I found quite the leak (ok, so it was more of a crater) in our financial ship via dining out.  After the realization of that trauma to our finances, I thought it might be wise to go back again to our 2012 statements and evaluate how much we spent on gas (for me.  Rick pretty much only drives to and from work, so his gas budget is a non-negotiable) and how much we spent on groceries/personal items. Read more

January 1st, 2013.  It’s finally arrived: The day we begin our Depression-Era (DE) living experiment in order to get out of debt.  We’ve been anticipating the arrival of this day for about the last six weeks or so, when we felt a strong tug on our spirits to get serious about debt reduction in our personal finances. Read more