A Dime at a Time

Navigating life and finances

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Money Talk 8-29-2018

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No, I still don’t have any official numbers on where we are with our debt payoff.  I completely missed my mid-month update, which was a combination of time getting away from me and honestly, not having much to report.  As things stand right now, we are hovering around a $700ish decrease for the month.  Certainly not great, but with having to use our sinking funds for our driveway and also taking an impromptu mini-anniversary trip, we are still playing catch-up.  I plan to have more solid numbers posted at some point this coming weekend.  Looking at some upcoming expenses and wage changes, I’m also feeling the need to do some budget tweaking.   [Read more…]

Flood of Bills

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Our first load of wood was delivered yesterday, all $450 worth! While the person we buy from is cash or check only, it still feels good that we are in a position to do so.  In the past, paying for all the irregular expense that come our way would have had us reaching for a credit card.  We sure have made some very positive changes since starting this journey!  In another month or so (read: when money permits!), we will order another load of wood.  We still have a fair amount left over from last burning season, but it is good to have more seasoning for the coming year.  Such a vicious cycle.  Lol. If you’re interested, I’m hosting a wood stacking party for anyone who’d like to stop on over.  I’ll provide the wood!  😉 [Read more…]

After much deliberation…

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Who would have thought there would be so many different thoughts on what debt we should tackle next?  I thank every one of you for taking the time to share your opinion.  Trust me when I say this wasn’t an easy decision to make, but ultimately it came down to how we can best keep pushing forward with getting rid of our massive debt.   [Read more…]

Snowflakes and Interest Rates

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We are currently getting hammered with the white stuff.  So much, in fact, that the preemie’s mom told me not to come today.  She did ask me if I could watch the baby all day on Monday, so at least the white stuff isn’t going to cost me the green stuff!   [Read more…]

Question and Answer Time

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“This might be too personal a question, I’m not sure but how much do you like to keep in your savings account/emergency fund? I know Dave Ramsey says $1000, but even though we have debt, that doesn’t seem like enough to me and makes me nervous.” ~  Sue

Not at all too personal of a question, Sue.  In fact, Hubs and I recently just discussed this.  The short answer would be to have as much as possible.  Keep reading for the long answer!   [Read more…]

When it comes to getting out of debt, is it possible to be both active and passive?

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“You are so lucky to have someone who is willing to take the time and help you. My husband is on board with getting the debt paid off, but he doesn’t want anything to do with it – really doesn’t want any details at all so it is hard for me to sometimes figure things out on my own.” ~ Sue 

The above quote is a comment made on a blog post over at Destination:  Planet Debt Free.  Other than that she and her husband are also desperately wanting to get out of debt, I don’t know much about Sue.  Based on one of her other comments, I’m guessing that they are in a similar age bracket.  What struck me, though, was the part about her husband being on board with wanting to get out of debt, but also not wanting anything to do with it.  Is it possible to be both an active and passive participant in the war against debt?

I think so.   [Read more…]

January spending recap

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Envelope spending totals.

Happy February 1.  Now with January in the books, I thought I should do a recap of our envelope spending.  As I mentioned in another post, we currently have six categories.  So, how did we do?  Here is the breakdown. [Read more…]

Tentative Plans

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Telling our money where to go.

Hubs and I are still pinching ourselves that the refi on our house went through.  With all of the delays we experienced, we were beginning to have a lot of doubts.  My seasonal job created a bit of a headache with verifying employment and why I wasn’t currently working there.  Um, it’s a seasonal position!  Why was this so hard for them to understand?  Another delay was the appraisal.  Being that we are so remote, there aren’t a lot of appraisers in our area.  Our personal biggest concern was our debt-to-income ratio.  I feel like we still have a lot of debt (well, we do!) and wondered how we could ever get approved to go down to a much shorter term.  Additionally, our credit scores weren’t as high as they were when we took out the original loan.  Anyhow, the refi did go through so I guess this is now just water under the bridge.  Now my biggest concern is making sure we are in a good position to keep making those payments! [Read more…]

Our Cash Envelope System

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Trying to do a better job at keeping track of where our money goes!

I’ve always admired those of you who keep track of every penny spent.  Although in 2017 I felt we were very good at avoiding unnecessary spending, admittedly, keeping track of every dime spent in every category wasn’t a strong point.  I have set out to change that for 2018 by tweaking our cash envelope system and also writing down what I do spend in a small notebook. [Read more…]

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