Financial Challenges Support Group
This community is for people who are struggling to meet financial obligations of any kind. Financial challenges include everything from the day-to-day challenges of making ends meet to managing credit card debt to bankruptcy. Get support from others who are going through similar obstacles on the road back to financial stability.
Hi everyone. Though I am new to this group, I have been reading it for well over a year. In hindsight, I should have joined earlier, to share with you my journey out of that dark tunnel. I saw light at the end of that tunnel and no it wasn't a freight train.
One foot of mine is out of the tunnel... the other is one step away from it. I never thought I would be so excited by what lies ahead.
On the financial front, three years ago I was right at $60,000 in debt. This Friday (9/21/12) I will be entirely out of debt. Just writing that down gives me goosebumps.
From this experience I have learned to pay bills on time and not let the interest sink me. And I've learned to pay myself first.
I believe there are three ways to get out of debt. One is bankruptcy. For me, that was a last option. I first wanted to give an honest attempt to get out of debt. Another way, was to increase income. I've tried that before and all I did was spend more. And finally, the way, I tried was by cutting expenses.
My first year, I cut out $7,200 in unnecessary expenses. By the third year, I cut out another $1,800 in expenses... that is $9,000 less that I am spending now then I did when I was deep in that dark tunnel.
Yet, with these cuts I never felt like I was struggling or wishing I could have something.
At the time I started this journey, the only goal I really had was to not bounce anymore checks. By bounce I mean using overdraft protection, checks were never returned, but the charges I had with those checks were insane.
It wasn't till recently that I realized, that with that goal, I was also was starting to pay myself first. What I did was round-up the checks I wrote and round-down my deposits. So, if I wrote a check for $14.01, in my checkbook I wrote it down as $15. If I deposited $100.99... I recorded it as $100.
I have NOT balanced my checkbook in three years. I do check the balance once a week on-line to see how much hidden money I have, but I haven't balanced it. Right now, my checkbook has $300 more in it then what I show. And even though I know it is there, when I see zero written in my ledger, I know it's time to quit spending.
Right away, I also quit spending loose change. Loose change to me was always a last resort... rummaging everywhere in the house trying to find any money that I had to get something. That change sits in vases and candy jars. Every week I write down how much I have added to it and right now, from pennies to dollar coins I have over $400 in loose change. Someday, I'll put it in my savings account, but for me, it is kind of a warning system. If I start dipping into that loose change then I know I'm in trouble.
Anyway, I want to say I have celebrated with you when you have paid off a bill or credit card or started a savings account. It is a wonderful high.
A little about me. My name is Dave and I am an alcoholic. I've been sober for 18 years and in the last three years the promises of recovery have been coming true. Five years ago, I was honored by being adopted into the Cherokee Nation and given the name Messenger, hence my username.
Anyway, thanks for reading...
One foot of mine is out of the tunnel... the other is one step away from it. I never thought I would be so excited by what lies ahead.
On the financial front, three years ago I was right at $60,000 in debt. This Friday (9/21/12) I will be entirely out of debt. Just writing that down gives me goosebumps.
From this experience I have learned to pay bills on time and not let the interest sink me. And I've learned to pay myself first.
I believe there are three ways to get out of debt. One is bankruptcy. For me, that was a last option. I first wanted to give an honest attempt to get out of debt. Another way, was to increase income. I've tried that before and all I did was spend more. And finally, the way, I tried was by cutting expenses.
My first year, I cut out $7,200 in unnecessary expenses. By the third year, I cut out another $1,800 in expenses... that is $9,000 less that I am spending now then I did when I was deep in that dark tunnel.
Yet, with these cuts I never felt like I was struggling or wishing I could have something.
At the time I started this journey, the only goal I really had was to not bounce anymore checks. By bounce I mean using overdraft protection, checks were never returned, but the charges I had with those checks were insane.
It wasn't till recently that I realized, that with that goal, I was also was starting to pay myself first. What I did was round-up the checks I wrote and round-down my deposits. So, if I wrote a check for $14.01, in my checkbook I wrote it down as $15. If I deposited $100.99... I recorded it as $100.
I have NOT balanced my checkbook in three years. I do check the balance once a week on-line to see how much hidden money I have, but I haven't balanced it. Right now, my checkbook has $300 more in it then what I show. And even though I know it is there, when I see zero written in my ledger, I know it's time to quit spending.
Right away, I also quit spending loose change. Loose change to me was always a last resort... rummaging everywhere in the house trying to find any money that I had to get something. That change sits in vases and candy jars. Every week I write down how much I have added to it and right now, from pennies to dollar coins I have over $400 in loose change. Someday, I'll put it in my savings account, but for me, it is kind of a warning system. If I start dipping into that loose change then I know I'm in trouble.
Anyway, I want to say I have celebrated with you when you have paid off a bill or credit card or started a savings account. It is a wonderful high.
A little about me. My name is Dave and I am an alcoholic. I've been sober for 18 years and in the last three years the promises of recovery have been coming true. Five years ago, I was honored by being adopted into the Cherokee Nation and given the name Messenger, hence my username.
Anyway, thanks for reading...
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I invited Bill to have dinner with me last Sunday. He wasn't willing to drive 7 hours to mid Michigan and teased me with his beautiful ribs!!! So, of course I ate alone and had cedar salmon
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check out that smoke ring. It tasted really good. I smothered it with Maulls BBQ sauce which is Local to St. Louis and one of the best I ever had.....
When I started this I was so close to being homeless... if my landlord did not hold my first rent check and deposit for two weeks I would have been homeless... at least short term....
Being homeless didn't totally scare me. 20 some odd years ago, I was homeless for a couple of years... what bothered me about it was that I was 20 years younger then and the thought of being back out in the cold was not appealing at all...
It really has been a wonderful journey to get to this point in time...
I have on a journey to being debt-free. I started 2 months ago and am enjoying the scenery.
I do look forward to paying bills. I want to hurry up and put another notch on my debt-reduction and savings belt. Because I made some cuts in expenses, I now have a possible cash flow, meaning I can pay the bills as they come in. No more shuffling payments and robbing Peter to pay Paul. I am just really pumped about this whole process.
Congrats on your financial freedom!
very inspiring to hear you.
I am( again!) starting a recovery road from a financial tunnel.
Ironically, I have been able to recover from awful stuff but I have a block on finances.I am well aware it is linked to my chidhood.My father used to give me money in exchange for my silence over abuse.It is as if a part of me resists to the idea of having a budget and does not want to be dominated by money.I know in fact, it is just the opposite that happens.
I extracted myself from deep financial mess a few times already.
I lost a lot of money after restoring a big rectory in ruins which belonged originally to a diocese association.I wanted to turn it into a retreat place for survivors.Once restored, the diocese demanded double amount of money.We went to tribunal for years;I lost, won and lost the case again.I was finally expelled.my husband who suffers from PTSD, got worse and compulsively bought a huge amount of gadgets which he never used and sold back for peanuts.
now we have to sponge off $ 80 000.I have a 5 year bankrupt plan.I know I can do it;I am quite good at making money but it burns my hands and I do not seem to be able to write down a budget;Is there a site on internet to fill in every expenses per month?
I like the idea of the jar.I do not have a cheque book, just a credit card.
Thanks for your inspiration and any suggestions are welcome.
Moon... I never really had a strict budget. Very shortly after I started this, I got into the mentality of paying myself first. I started at 10% of my paycheck.
At first, I was scared to put it in a bank for fear creditors would grab it... so I hid it in my place.
Besides that 10%, I had and still have a calendar next to my desk that tells me exactly when a bill is due. That was my for my current bills. I then took 20% of my check to live on for two weeks and the rest went to paying old bills.
I never paid more then one bill at a time. I didn't care if one old bill was six months behind, I wasn't going to touch it until the bill I was working on got paid.
All it did was get me a bunch of mail and a bunch of phone calls which made me pay off bills faster.
I also firmly believe that to pay off a debt and to save money, we should "reward" ourselves as well.
What I did in the beginning was to go out to eat once a month. That money came from my savings. I still give myself these little rewards.
I'm an avid college football fan and last weekend my favorite team (Iowa State) was on pay-per-view. I have never spent money for something like that and then I thought I hadn't rewarded myself yet this month so why not? I went out and got some chicken, fried that up and made some potato salad and coleslaw and watched the game. It was a blast. Those monthly rewards gave me something to look forward too.
And yes, I also have a yearly reward. And that reward is spending Christmas and New Year's in Europe. All of this is always paid with by cash.
In the past I would go on a holiday like that and charge it all and then take four or five years to pay it off. By paying in cash, it is so stress free and gives me something to shoot for next year as well.
Debt is one of the most stressful events in my life. And I needed to remember that stressed spelled backwards is desserts! I needed to treat myself to a dessert every now and then so the stress made it unbearable.
I, too, have been down this road before. The second time for me... this time though is different... I have goals and dreams and a new found respect for money.
If I don't have the cash, I'm not doing anything.
There is a quote in AA's Big Book which helped me a lot, "Although financial recovery is on the way for many of us, we found
we could not place money first. For us, material well-being always
followed spiritual progress; it never preceded."
I am going to have a family meeting tonight and put this on the agenda. I hope they go with me on this one, and don't discourage me from it,
believe me I have tried to get my family on board with me on savings, and they are joy killers and will not jump on board with me, it is so frustrating.
Help!!!! I can't just throw them out on the streets if they don't cooperate. lol jk
But seriously, I hope they go for it.
I am officially out of debt...
As Bill Clinton said at the convention holding up his hand in an "O" - ZERO...
*happy dance*