Skip to main content

Posts

How do you determine how much a dependable car costs?

Photo by  Artistic Operations / Pixabay.com My husband’s car is on its last ... tire? It had been a good, reliable vehicle for years, but it is officially at the point now when it costs more to repair it than it is worth. So, rather than pump a bunch of money into it, we’ve spent just enough to keep it on the road. Our hope is that we can make it last until we paid down enough debt that we can buy another vehicle. But now, we’ve reached the point where we might not have a choice much longer. And as we job hunt, we feel a sense of urgency to have a second reliable vehicle. What if my husband and I get jobs in different cities? Carpooling to work won’t likely be feasible. So on my to-do list: Try to assess what the least amount a dependable vehicle would cost, and figure out a way to get us to that magic number as quickly as possible. I’m not sure how to go about the first part, though: figuring out the minimum we’d need to spend for a dependable vehicle ... the ...
Recent posts

Finding a use for gifts you don't use

( Stuart Miles / FreeRangeStock.com ) Question: Someone gives you a present. You open it, give the gifter a sincere smile, and say, "Thank you," but you know that gift is something you'll never use. Not once. What do you do with it later? Me? I keep them. I just can't shake the feeling of guilt that goes along with regifting or selling them. As a result, my family and I have lots of items we either haven't used in years or have never used at all: An electric knife, electric griddle, a big mixer, something called Yonanas. The list goes on and on. But the bottom line is, Yonanas and electric knives don't fit my family's lifestyle. They never have, and I doubt they ever will. So I think I might need to get over feeling like it would be ungrateful to get rid of them and post them in places like Craigslist or some of those online sales sites on Facebook for sale. That way, at least we can have the cash to pay toward part of our debt. Wouldn't...

How to fight the temptation to spend money you don't have

I'm fighting the urge to buy new carpeting. ( Merelize / FreeRangeStock.com ) When I did some online research on this topic, most of what I found involved impulse buys in a department store — handbags, dresses, and shoes. Those have never really been a problem for me. I avoid overspending on those items by avoiding the department store altogether. Problem solved. Well, almost. I do still have to fight the temptation to spend money I don't have, but it's on more pricey items than a new handbag (well, the kind of handbags I'd buy, anyway). No, I have to fight the temptation to upgrade my computer or smartphone. When I find out we might have a little extra cash coming up, rather than thinking, "Hey, we can pay off X credit card!" I think, "I wonder if that's enough to replace the living room carpet." Don't get me wrong. We could use new carpet. My husband and I have lived in this house for nearly 16 years, and we've never repl...

Economizing while we job hunt

( Chance Agrella / FreeRangeStock.com ) I've been away from this blog for a long, long while, but my husband and I have still been slowly winnowing down our debt. We still have a long way to go, though. So much for my hope to have everything but the house paid off before my daughter started school . We need to get even more serious about getting rid of our debt. Due to ongoing hardships in the industry we work in, my husband and I are both unemployed at the moment. We're OK for now, because we each get a severance. We hope to have jobs before that runs out, but we'll be economizing in the meantime, just in case we don't. We need to make what we're getting right now last as long as possible. So, our journey continues. I am always on the lookout for coupons, but because we do most of our grocery shopping at Aldi , the coupons we can use are few and far between. The longer our joblessness lasts, the more likely I'll be to cut luxuries like our TV subsc...

Gotta get my groove back

( Chance Agrella / FreeRangeStock.com ) I did well for a little while; I kept my spending in check for a whole whopping week, and then I fell back into a few bad habits. I am determined not to let the bad habits win. I don't really know what it's going to take to get myself on track for more than "a little while," but I want to keep working at it. The holidays are coming. My plan: A credit-free holiday this year. If I can pull it off, it will be a first for me since about 1994.

One weak moment, and I'm down $9

( Chance Agrella / FreeRangeStock.com ) Thanks to a lack of discipline two paychecks ago, my last paycheck is very tight. So, I sat down and figured out to the penny what I can afford to spend on gas, quick fill-in trips to the grocery store, and birthday gifts for a niece and nephew without whipping out a charge card. And then Saturday happened. I went to the store to get said gifts and pick up a can of peas for a homemade stew, then swung by my sister's house for an hour or so to let my daughter and her daughter play together for an hour or so. Afterward, I wasn't feeling well, so for the first time since I'd renewed my resolve to pay down our debt, and I swung through a fast-food restaurant on our way home. The guilt kept me from buying drinks, so I did minimize the damage. But now, I've got to wrangle an extra $9 from my budget. I'm hoping either gas or fill-in groceries won't cost as much as I'd budgeted. And maybe, just maybe, if I...

Eyes on the prize

I'm no where near where I hoped I'd be financially by this point. Have I paid off anything? Nope. I won't use the phrase, "it's not for a lack of trying," because I know good and well that I have not tried as hard as I should. Today, as I left work and headed to the day care to pick up my daughter, I really, really wanted to swing into a fast-food restaurant and pick up dinner. I didn't want to cook, I didn't want to clean up afterward, and french fries just sounded oh so good. But I passed them all — Wendy's, Burger King, Sonic — went home and opened up a can of ravioli for my daughter and me. Too often, though, that's not the path I choose. It's easy for me to tell myself, "Well, we'll eat out this one time, and then we'll eat at home tomorrow." But of course, when "tomorrow" comes, I give in to the temptation again. I really do want to pay off our debt, but I think at least part of the chal...