A Debt Snowball Setback

So… in November I posted about how we were putting the debt snowball on hold due to a slower than expected fall. This was, and is still true.

However – we also had a second reason – which we could not share at the time… and while it’s a debt snowball setback – it’s also terrific news.

We’re expecting a baby!

Due this summer – so our debt payoff is on hold – but we couldn’t be more overjoyed.

And we are so thankful for all the hard work we put in last year.  Baby will be born into a family that is only a few more payoffs from being debt free!

Advertisement

November by the Numbers

As regular readers know, I was so excited for the month of November.  Since I get paid every two weeks (and we keep a monthly budget that assumes I have 2 paychecks each month) – every once in a while, 3 paychecks arrive within the same calendar month. November was one such month.

Since it’s basically a ‘bonus’ paycheck and it doesn’t fall within the normal budget, we were planning on putting the entire thing toward debt. Because the last few months were slow on the self-employed front – we thought this would give us a nice boost of progress and encouragement.

Now for the sad update….

It has been slow. Really slow. Fall is normally the busy season, but due to slow economy and general uncertainties, this fall’s busy season never really got going.

We don’t really expect it to pick up all that much, anytime soon, so we are considering this a “Crisis.”  Now crisis is a strong word – we aren’t majorly hurting, we have some backup funds, however, we are trying to plan the best we can, hopefully heading off a potential HUGE crisis.

When Dave Ramsey talks about times of “Crisis” – such as Job Loss– (which we are kind of comparing this slow time to) – he says to put a pause on the Debt Snowball.  Save up the money instead. Use it as you need in the crisis situation. The goal would be to avoid accruing additional debt during the crisis. And Lord willing- once the crisis is over, some (maybe all) of the money you saved up – will still be in your possession.  At that point, take that money you saved and throw it at the debt snowball. So this is what we are doing.

All that to say, other than paying our minimums this month, there are no numbers to report.

Total Debt paid in November: $250*

Since 1/1/2012 – Total Debt Paid off: $31,018*

*For the purpose of Baby step 2 we are not factoring in our home mortgage

And then (not to be too big of a downer) but this also means that we will not meet our goal to be completely out of debt by the end of the year.

However, while we won’t meet our goal, we cannot say that it was a complete failure.  We are So Encouraged! Just over 31K  paid off in one calendar year!?! (and a slow year at that!) We KNOW that we will be able to finish once work starts picking up. We estimate that we have about 16K more to go, so we are really hoping and praying that by as soon as possible in 2013 – we will be debt free.

I’ll still be updating monthly on our progress – and with minimums, we are still knocking out really small amounts of principle every month.

Thanks for following along!

October by the Numbers

So… again, a slow month. Not very exciting numbers – however, I guess for perspective, any number above 0 is better than what could have been. We did have someone give us $10 extra dollars for running an errand for them- so there was extra income this month 🙂

We’ve collected a few more items to craigslist or put on ebay, so hopefully we’ll have some extra income from selling those items soon.

Also, for my office Halloween luncheon, my department went as the social network, with all of us being different social media sites. I was Blogger, as in blogspot, where I blogged from 2005 – 2009. I had a Blogger shirt, very orange elements in my clothing and my prop, which was my “Pennies for Debra” jar because my “blog theme” was finances. (Not completely pretend. Ha!) Having the jar meant explaining what “Pennies for Debra” is. Which resulted in some contributions. 😀 So thanks for those that gave once purposeless pennies a new lease on life.

Anyway, here are the numbers:

Extra income: $10

Extra Debt paid: $403

Total Debt paid in October: $649*

Since 1/1/2012 – Total Debt Paid off: $30,768*

*For the purpose of Baby step 2 we are not factoring in our home mortgage

Click here to learn more about the origins and purpose of “Pennies for Debra”

Or, for a listing of all “Pennies for Debra” posts, just go to www.penniesfordebra.com.

September by the Numbers

Again – nothing to exciting to report (other than the fact that, yes, we did feel the DFW earthquake yesterday).  As I stated last month, fall work is starting to pick up again.  With work coming in, we were able to apply a little extra to the debt.

I’m still not sure if we will make our goal of paying off all the debt before the end of the year, but we are certainly getting close.

Here are the somewhat, non-exciting, numbers:

Extra income: none

Extra Debt paid: $905

Total Debt paid in September: $1,151*

Since 1/1/2012 – Total Debt Paid off: $30,119*

*For the purpose of Baby step 2 we are not factoring in our home mortgage

August by the Numbers

This is going to be a pretty short post.  We’re doing well and thankfully, the fall work is starting to pick up again.

Like I mentioned in my previous post, our biggest contribution to debt this month was deciding to put what we’ve saved for car replacement toward the debt.  We figure my car will last a while longer and should it completely breakdown, that’s what our emergency fund is for.

We just went on a holiday road trip and while driving listened to a few more Financial Peace University Lessons, giving ourselves a jolt of encouragement.

Here are the numbers:

Extra income: none

Extra Debt paid: $1,919

Total Debt paid in August: $2,165*

Since 1/1/2012 – Total Debt Paid off: $28,968*

*For the purpose of Baby step 2 we are not factoring in our home mortgage

 

July by the Numbers

Not too much to report. Like I’ve said in previous posts, we’ve squirreled away money to provide for this slow time.  We are thankful that we were both able to make a smaller contribution above and beyond minimums, as well as buy a much-needed mattress.

Normally, big purchases would be on hold. All Wants ARE on hold. However, due to our particular health situations, so that we could get quality rest and not continue to have (sometimes fairly major) back pain, a new mattress, fell into what we considered a necessity.

We were thankful to hit a pretty large mattress sale, 50% off plus instant rebates.  I was surprised at how expensive high-end mattresses can be. It made me sad to think that people were probably walking in the store that weekend, financing a 1,400 – 3,000 dollar mattress. What great deals! 0% interest financing! No credit check! UGH! Lies! Tricks! Don’t do it!!!!

We didn’t sell anything, or make any extra income so here are the numbers:

Extra income: none

Cash flowed to new mattress: $802

Extra Debt paid: $627

Total Debt paid in July: $873*

Since 1/1/2012 – Total Debt Paid off: $26,803*

*For the purpose of Baby step 2 we are not factoring in our home mortgage

An Interesting New Project

This is not a Budget related post – it more of an ARG post.  Though – it’s not quite that either.

Some friends of mine are working on a new project, which has encouraged us to have an ’emergency budget meeting’ and back our first kickstarter project.

Ok – I guess it IS a budget related post. 🙂

Anyway, in the past I’ve blogged about friends who made a feature film (Between Notes). These same friends are launching another new project – and the Kickstarter runs for another 12 days.  If you like Stories, Technology, Creativity, Storytelling, Real-life interaction, and trying to push the boundaries on how we use media to tell narratives, I’d recommend you check it out.

It’s setting is London – on the closing day of the Opening Olympics. It’s told through an App & serialized content (first of which drops on Aug 12 – the literal last day of the Olympics).  It follows the life of 7 characters.  Title: Seven Poets and the Assassin’s Secret.

Find out more here.

June by the Numbers

This was an interesting (and slightly unexpected) month.

To start with, while the numbers at the end of this post might seem to show otherwise – we have definitely hit the slow portion of the year.  The very first few days of the month, my husband had a slew of freelance jobs pay – resulting in, for all intents and purposes, no outstanding invoices. Meaning – no checks waiting to come in until work picks back up, and more invoices go out. And even when more invoices start going out – it can be a couple of months on average for checks to start coming in.

It was also an odd month in that the way I get paid, is every two weeks.  This means two months out of the year, I get three paychecks in the calendar month. This happens to be one of those months.

To top off the “this is not a normal month” list, we’ve had family in town for a week and a half helping us with a remodel of the garage. Normally, a project of this magnitude would wait until someone is out of Baby Step 2. However, in this case, the HOA is painting all garages this summer and they were going to “just fix” any with rotten wood and charge us.  We thought it would be better to fix it ourselves so that it was done right, and done without having a huge gaping question mark to our home maintenance budget.

Fortunately, we were able to cash flow this project with the unexpected checks that came in at the beginning of the month.  We estimated  high on what the renovation budget would need to be – and ultimately, it didn’t directly affect our normal monthly budget, but it did take way from what we could have paid off.

And so, the numbers:

Extra income: none

Cash flowed to Garage Reno: $2,000

Extra Debt paid: $4,185

Total Debt paid in June: $4,431*

Since 1/1/2012 – Total Debt Paid off: $25,930*

One Major item to note – With this month’s extra debt paid – we are now over the 1/2 mark. Which is terrific since June is the 1/2 point in the year.  It’s so hopeful seeing focus and determination pay off. We might actually make our 2012 goal! We will have to wait and see how the next quarter goes – we’ll certainly get behind on the pace we need to finish – but there is always hope that the 4th quarter will be outstanding and catch us back up.

*For the purpose of Baby step 2 we are not factoring in our home mortgage

May by the Numbers

This month was pretty spectacular.  We are so thankful that we got one more amazing month before the actual slowdown hits.

We had very little ‘extra’ income this month.  No Craigslist sales.

This month’s budgeting was a little tight as the way refueling fell in the calendar – we both needed gas for our vehicles on the 29th, pushing us over that line item.  We had out-of-town company for a handful of days – but were pretty pleased that we were able to save on the other weeks so as to eat out with our company and not go over on the food budget.  We were under by an entire $7. 🙂

As far as progress – like I mentioned, the slowdown hasn’t hit yet so when some large jobs finished up (having already prepared for the next few slow months) we were able to make the FIRST EVER above minimum on our last remaining Major Debt – my grad school student loan.

Without further ado – the numbers:

Extra income:

We won a $100 Amex gift card

Extra Debt paid: $3,794

Total Debt paid in May: $4,040*

Since 1/1/2012 – Total Debt Paid off: $21,499*

*For the purpose of Baby step 2 we are not factoring in our home mortgage

I Was Wrong

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I was a little off on my time line.  Turns out – middle of May is when the slow down starts for the self-employed one.  That means, in May, we still have large invoices going out, and healthy checks coming in.

The slowdown in income comes about a month or so after the slowdown in work.  We’ve been little worker ants storing up for the slow months, so we aren’t worried about that for our typical monthly budget. Really this just affected when and how much extra we can pay on debt.

I won’t have the final numbers until the end of the month, but it will be better than expected. Mt. Doom is not quite looming over us yet. Apparently, that will start next month.