Skip to main content

Reality Check

As I go through my "Coach Yourself Thin" book (first post on it is here), I think first about whether the topic the authors are addressing applies to how I view weight loss, then I ask myself, "Does this apply to how I try to tackle my finances too?"

When I came across a section that elaborates on how some people set unrealistic goals for getting themselves back to a healthy weight, it suddenly occurred to me that I've never done the math when it comes to our debt. Is it even possible for my husband and me to pay off all of our debt before our daughter starts school?

So, I busted out the calculator and did a quick figure. First of all, it's been a few months since I've seen our total debt, so the best I can do on the fly is guess and base it on the progress we've been able to do in a month's time in the past. At this point, it doesn't look like it. We'd have to make more than $2,000 in payments toward the principal of what we owe to meet that goal.

I'm not willing to just throw it out the window, though. I want to up my efforts to send extra and cut spending, then revisit the plan in a year. Maybe by then, we'll have enough paid down we could see the end a little more clearly.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Trimming the Grocery List

This week is another grocery shopping week, and I'm dreading it. I had at one point managed to get my grocery spending under $175 every two weeks, the last few trips have not gone that well. They've all totaled more than $200, not including any supplementary trips I needed to make later. I'm not really sure what I can do to cut it more at this point beyond rethink what we've been eating. Over the past few months, the price of ground beef has gone up quite a bit, and much of what we eat has ground beef in it. I had been buying the leanest beef available, but on my last grocery trip, I bought 90/10 meat. Perhaps we'll need to eat more chicken.
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Mathematics of Cheese

On a recent trip to the grocery store, I reached for a package of shredded cheese, but then I wondered, "Can I save money by shredding it myself?" So I walked over to the bricks of cheese and noticed that yes, the price was better, so I loaded up because I had a lot of dishes that called for cheese on the menu for the next two weeks. The last time I went to the grocery store, though, I noticed that I didn't look closely enough. Sure, the price for a brick of cheese is less than buying a bag of cheese that is already shredded, but the price per ounce is better when you buy the shredded stuff. I don't understand the hows and whys of that, but at least I know to look a little more closely when I'm shopping next time.
Post a Comment
Read more