Getting Out of Debt in 2009 - What are your financial plans?

[panthermom]

We started with Dave slowly a couple of years ago (with $30,000 debt) and we have cashflowed (paid cash out of our budget) several crises. We now have less than $5000 in debt!

[Maismom]

The only CC balance I have is $1600 tuition I paid by AMEX using 0% interest offer. I will pay it off with the bonus I will receive in December. With that, no CC debt.

In 2009, I'd like to:

1. Contribute 20% of my salary to 401K
I contributed 20% first six month of 2008, but reduced to 10% to improve my cash flow. Since I reduced my FSA contribution from $3K to $1K next year, I should be able to do it.

2. Start saving $100 per month toward next car.
I drive 2004 Rav4 and it has 96K miles on it. I'm planning to drive it till wheels fall off, but I'd better start saving for next car. I won't buy it for several yaers, though.

3. Get a side job
I will get my accounting degree in May next year. That means no more night classes and I will have a lot of time. So, I may look for something fun to do on a side, like working at Macy's or something

[skw6559]

$8426 and some change before house will be paid off. The one car loan I have will be paid off at the time the house is paid off as well. No CC debt- Use my Citi rewards card to pay for everything ( pay in full every Sunday evening). No excuses or deviations from this one. If I don't have enough to cover it on Sunday, I don't buy it.

There is hope...I was up to my ears in CC debt 2 years ago. Some things that we did were:

1. Take a good look at what you owe and write it all down ( I was amazed at this one). Write out the good, bad and the ugly...
2. Pay off your credit cards- at the time we were able to get a zero balance transfer rate. We then worked at getting it paid off before the 0% interest rate expired.
3. House payment is made bi-weekly and this erased many years off of our mortgage.
4. We are currently paying additional money on the principle of our house.
5. Look at utilities- cell phone plans, home phone plans, cable/satellite bills. I was amazed at how much we were paying for these and made changes in the plans that we have.
6. Rebate- we live in a NBPR state and these add up.
7. Read and learn from the people on this board. There are so many things that we get for free or cheap. Stockpile.
8. We skipped vacations for a few years. We were lucky enough to go on 2 this year.
9. Review how much you spend every week. Keep your receipts and look over them once a week. I had no clue to how much those little stops here and there were adding up to.
10. Start an emergency fund. Typically those little things can get you in trouble. Usually because they turn into big things.

Good luck to everyone. We can do it!!!

[liltate]

We have only a little CC debt, about $2000, but DH and I are hopeless at paying things off. Plus 2 cars $30,000 and our house which we just bought about 4mnths ago, $130,000.
I just signed up for the Dave Ramsey TMM and want to have my Emergency Fund done by Jan 09 and have all our CC debts paid by May 09.
Hopefully by summer next year I will be able to sell my car, leaving us with only one car and our mortgage.
But we also just bought a business so were not sure how much this is going to affect our cashflow yet?!?!?!

[MamaBird06]

Oh sign me up. I haven't done any calculations yet, but i am sure our non mortgage debt is around 30K, this includes students loans, 2 car loans and the cc's. We are actually postponing having baby #2 until we get some of debt taken care of first. We will be off to india for the first month of 09', so starting feb 1st ,we will hoping be able to begin tackling some of this debt. I will work on a plan later...

[skw6559]

up

[KrazyKatie]

I'm not sure exactly how much debt I have.. I don't think it's much, but I know at least $3,000 of it is a defaulted credit card. 2007 was NOT kind to me and I spent 2007 and 2008 dealing with various medical expenses on top of depressive "screw it" shopping sprees without coupons and not paying basic bills. I felt REALLY dirty in 2008, I hate to admit (though, I did still get a lot of free or discounted items with coupons). :frown:

My goals for 2009? BILLS COME FIRST!!!! One of the last things I have bought (besides food) is a magnetic dry erase/cork board with a nice black frame, to hang next to my computer. I have written nagging messages on it. As soon as I find some push pins, I will tack my current bills, collection bills and all, to it.

Oh yes.. And eating out will be only once a month, if at all. I know how to cook, I should do that more often.

So, here are my priorities:

Rent
Utilities
Insurance
Car
Accounts in collection (at least $10 to each per month, or more if budget allows.)
Food (includes pet food)

[rockhound24]

I just totaled everything up:
Student Loan: $8,917.70
Truck: $2,753.52
Timeshare: $4,145.79 (Stupid, should never have let myself get talked into this)
CC: $1,013.08
Total: $16,830.09
My plan is this: Bonus and Tax return will pay off CC and Truck. I have had a part time 2nd job for 1 year now, and have managed to pay down $7300 on the truck already. (whoo hoo!!! go me!!) I will continue with the 2nd job, and will work on paying off the timeshare since it has the higher interest rate. If I really buckle down, it should only take me 6-8 months to pay it off. Then on the those pesky student loans!
I'm totally excited about this, and am going to update my progress in my siggy. It will give me a goal to shoot for every month.

[KrazyKatie]

GO ROCKHOUND24!!!! :dance3:

Heck.. GO EVERYBODY!!!

[momof4inmi]

I just want to say Woo-Hoo to everyone here!!

Ok so I am unsure on the exact amount..will update later but I know it is at least 15,000 not including the mortgage. My first step is going to be to save my 1000.00 EF fund. Then I need to get current again on my mortgage. WAIT, I can hear all the dave ramsey fans saying get current first (I said it in my head too...LOL). But I know I need to have BS1 done before I can do anything else. DH and I plan on having BS1 done by Feb 1, 2009.

Well Good Luck to all. I will add my debt to my siggy as soon as I figure the amount out.

Terri