I guess I just focus on one debt at a time instead of looking too far ahead, and once one debt goes, the money that was budgeted to go to that can go to hammering the next debt. I thought I had the credit card (it was paid off completely!) under control until some car troubles last weekend. So, back to cracking that one. DH's HECS I would say should be gone in about 18 months, his car loan still has 3 years if we keep paying the minimum amount. Then there's the mortgage :| and we just got a tax bill
Last edited by lady_neon; August 1st, 2012 at 03:15 PM.
There is a mortgage payment projection thingo somewhere, that out finance guy showed to us, that showed how paying an extra $4 a week on our mortgage extrapolated out to saving $50k in interest by the end of the mortgage. That was pretty motivational I think....Everytime I wanted to buy a coffee or the girls an icecream, I thought about how those gold coins could better be used and that made me think.
Google: mortgage repayment calculator extra and click on the Mortgage Choice link. An extra $200 a month from your $300k mortgage = $79k and 5 years saved.
I am pretty hopeless with money, but I made sure that DH knew what was going on and what I had bought or paid off while he was away at work, so I felt accountable to someone and that helped too.
Get a credit card with 0% for 12-15 months. Transfer your current balance. Cancel old cards. Pay off debt without paying interest. This shortens the time needed to pay off the debt.
Pack-up lunches for work.
When cooking, make an extra portion (or serve an extra portion) to freeze. Costs next to nothing, looks after your waistline and you have a freezer full of meals for when you don't have time/motivation to cook and fancy an easy meal. As good as a takeout!
Also, don't write off your car. That would be a top tip I wish I'd followed.
I have run a lean budget for over 7 years now so that we could pay our mortgage while on maternity leave initially but then so that I could go back to work part time, then have another baby etc. we've just kept it going.
I have decided to do it 1 debt at a time.
Pay the minimum on them all, and put any extra on that one debt.
Currently, we are working on my car.
I prob makes more sense to spread the extra over all of them, but the rewards are so small then. I need more short term goals than long term gain KWIM?
It's hard to keep focus but I think or person has to be tough and be the controller to make sure things don't go off track. once you do it for a while you get used to it and it becomes easier.
We have just paid off a credit card & car lona so I printed out the zero balances and stuck it to the fridge so we can see them because it's so nice to look at a zero balances and I can't wait to put the next one up there too
Astrid - I know how you feel. I'm planning on a few major things next year and I have to kick myself into gear getting budgeting stuff all organised. I'm trying to pay off a credit card, am about to look at the balance transfer offers of other banks to swap it to one with minimal interest on the transferred balance. I'm lucky I've only got one credit card and that currently is my only debt. But I do things like OS trips every year. I also want to have a bigger emergency fund/nest egg. I think the major thing for me is once this contract is over, I bite the bullet and temporarily go back to my skill-set work-wise and deal with the pressure and just think of 3-6 months of the money coming in to get me set.
I want to buy, but have no idea where or when, so have to start factoring in savings for that.
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That was pretty motivational I think....Everytime I wanted to buy a coffee or the girls an icecream, I thought about how those gold coins could better be used and that made me think.
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