Frugalicious Friday no. 19 I think...?

It was so exhilarating reducing our car debt from approx $9300 to $6300 in 2 months. PRAISE JESUS! Our debt snowball is coming along. Just 3 more debt payoffs: John's car, student loan and then my car and then NO DEBT EXCEPT THE HOUSE! Saaaweet!

I don't have the tally we've paid off. I know prior to medical bills it was $40,000 in cars, credit cards, etc. Then the trauma/drama of 13 surgeries happened for me and that shot up the debt. Now it's back down to $30,000! We have a goal for finishing in 19 months. "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, what do we do we swim swim swim!" Thank you Dory. You forgetful genius fish, you!

We could have knocked this out sooner if it was for:
the blessing of
a new A/C
a new roof
4 new tires for my car
a new fridge
oh and the shower from last year. Yes. There is still a hole where a shower once was in our master bath. It has been exactly 1 year that we've all been using 1 shower. It's not been terrible, especially when you consider that some people aren't blessed to have any shower. So we're not crying Argentina over it. What did we do when this happened? We stopped the debt snowball- stopped paying off our debt- budgeted for what we could cash flow. But thankfully, since a lot of those were emergencies we were able to take it out of our emergency $1,000 savings. And then pay it back with the next paycheck or 2 or 3...

So if catastrophe hits:
1. pay it out of your emergency fund - $1,000.
2. If emergency is more- ask to break it up into payments w/o interest that you can cash flow. Tell them you will be paying in cash and a lot of times they will give you a discount!
3. If not an emergency, budget for it and stop paying off debt.
4. Rebuild emergency fund.
5. Start up debt snowball again.
6. Keep praying!
The shower- not an emergency- therefore budgeting.
The other stuff- emergency-use emergency fund.

You are going to have a heartchange with this plan.

Check what you need vs what you want. You will find that what you think you need is usually a want. Don't beat yourself up! God doesn't work by shaming (I know this is a Biblical statement, but can't remember address) so you shouldn't either. You've got debt. Now what are you going to do about it?

Do you have a question that you'd like to ask Dave Ramsey but don't have the time to call in? Check out his FAQ's section on his website, Ask Dave. I've checked it many times and believe me people are in your shoes and they call in with your questions! Will any of you join in by commenting on your debt snowball/payoff progress? Please do so we can encourage each other that it's cool to be Frugalicious! We will be a "slave to the lender" no longer!! God bless you on your family's path to freedom!