It really surprised me how many of you were living paycheck to paycheck (or even less). It doesn't have to be that way.

n my soapbox: Here's My #1 Tip: Pay yourself FIRST.

Let me say that again: Pay yourself first. This means things like paying debt down, creating an emergency fund, investing for retirement, etc., has to come FIRST. In paying yourself first, you're also having to deal with sub-issues such as:

Needs vs. Wants
Paying yourself first should take precedence over everything. That includes cable, cell phones, buying clothes, eating out, vacations, or the like. Unfortunately, most people see certain things as needs when they're really wants. Learn the difference.

Delay of Gratification
When people are unable to forego things mentioned above, they are having problems in delaying gratification. The more you're able to do without today in order to reap the benefits tomorrow, the more financially successful you'll be. There is also a correlation with your ability to delay gratification to your general success in life as well.

Don't Upgrade Your Lifestyle
What happens when you get a bonus, a raise, or some other sort of financial boost? Do you use it to pay your bills, build your nest egg, or do you use it to upgrade your lifestyle? Too many people use raises to justify moving into bigger houses before they really should, buy "toys" such as newer model cars, or augment their current lifestyle. Instead, use those times to help break the paycheck to paycheck cycle.

Make it Automatic
Make those payments as automatic as possible so you don't even see the money. You have to give these things a top priority. If you don't, you'll never get ahead.

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"Ordinary riches can be stolen: real riches cannot. In your sould are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken away from you." -- Oscar Wilde

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Great advice, Kim!!! We are working to climb out of the paycheck-to-paycheck trap.

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If you need to get in touch with me, my email is teach1107910@yahoo.com.

That's great advice Kim!!!

I know in my mind I NEED to pay debt first, savings first, etc...but there's always that nagging "what if" in the back of my mind, so I keep the money in checking and ultimately the "what if" never comes but too many trips for coffee, pizza, etc..happen and then it's pretty depressing to know I could have avoided all of that by paying the debt first!!

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Why treat someone like a priority when all they see you as is an option?

Great advice Kim! I especially like the "Don't upgrade your lifestyle"! We recently thought about moving! Our 3rd son is due in a few months and we only have a 3 bedroom house. I LOVE the idea of our boys sharing a room (my younger sister & I did), but I wasn't sure about if it would work at age 1 & 3. (or 2 & 4 at that point) We got pre-approved to upgrade and then decided to instead stay here to have the extra money to pay off our debt and maybe even get some savings. If we moved we'd probably have enough money to pay off our debt and cover our closing costs, but we'd have NO savings & a higher mortgage pmt! We decided if we stay here 1 more year, we'll be able to still pay off our debt (just a little slower) and actually have money left over! We were pretty proud of ourselves for making this decision! We felt like we were being smart about it!

Since then I just read Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover" and have decided 1 year may be more like 2 or 3 or even more! Now my focus is to get our debt paid off and maybe even save up for dh to get a new car, and then save for a house! We probably won't pay for the house in full, but we will go for the 15 year fixed if we can!

I'm SO much happier since we decided to stay! (and since I read Dave) I feel like we have a plan now and an end in site!

Plus I know there's a family on the other side of our neighborhood in our exact same floor plan with at least 4 kids (maybe 5 - i loose count)! If she can do it, we can, right??

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Stay at home mom to my 3 boys... ages 5, 3 & 1!

I can do all things through CHRIST who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13

I have friends that are SHOCKED that my girls share a room. I see no need to them not to. We do have the room for them to each have their own room, but we are taking one of the small rooms for an office for me(currently youngest's room) and a tool room for dh in basement. The oldest will eventually have her own room but the other two will have to share.
I loved sharing a room with my sister. We drove to a family funeral and had to stay overnight. We stayed up all night talking like we used to and talking about sharing a room and all the things we did. It was such fun. It was wierd that we had a blast since we were there for a funeral.
Sorry, went off track...
allgirls

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allgirls, mom to 3 girls

It's Girl Scout Cookie Time

These two points are key for me. I won't be popular for saying this, but there are many people who just don't get this. There is a BIG disconnect between what are actually needs vs. what people think are needs. Needs to me are food, shelter, health insurance, transportation to and from work, electricity, water, etc.

Internet, cell phones, long distance, cable, satellite, eating out, etc. are, most definitely, NOT needs. Sure, nobody wants to give them up, but we all have to do what we have to do.

Great advice, Kim! I am now working to pay down my debts that would increase my and my husband's credit scores up so we could be qualify for low interest to buy a first-time home in early of 2008 (hopefully ) We don't have any savings since our son born in 2004 due to my husband quits some jobs that messed up our monthly budget and I am only one who work for government for 11 years. So we decided to have separate checking/saving accounts so I can work on pay down my debts and we divide which rent/utilities to pay, but things have not been back to normal yet since he just have 2 new jobs (full-time & part-time) for few weeks now so I will wait/see how things go with our budget until December. Please pray for us and hope we could buy a first-time home rather than for us to throw $$ out of window every month.

newlywed,
I really think you are such an asset to this board. I really think you "get it". I won't go into detail, but I have been there. My dh brought a LOT of consumer debt. into our relationship and we worked and cut back together to get it paid off. We were also saving for our down payment for our house, starting my IRA, and paying off my car. I worked 6 days a week as a bartender...two of those days were open to close then I was headwait. That meant that I was the first front of the house person to arrive (even before the floor manager) and the closing manager and I were the last people to leave the building. These were 16-18 hour days, depending on how busy we were. Dh is a restaurant manager (at a different restaurant) so he was working similar hours.

On top of these nightmare work weeks, we would do anything we could to make extra money. One time we were paid to strip and refinish the wooden benches in front of the restaurant where I worked.

We did this for two years before we moved and bought our house. We went without everything, cell phones, eating out, etc. the whole time.

It really...well...the best word is sucked. We did it though and my dh learned a lesson. He never wanted to see bologna sandwiches and hamburger helper again!

You guys are going to do it too and you will also learn from it. I watch your progress and am just amazed.

Keep it up!

Thanks for posting this Kim! Its really great advice.

So many of us think that there is no way to cut back more or that we can't possibly break the cycle but its possible. Even that occasional splurge is something that could have been used towards debt or growing savings. Right now I wanted to quit my job before the baby comes but have decided to keep working in order for us to get a little further ahead before she is here. Is it fun? Nope, but its what is best for our financial situation.

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Proud mommy to adorable Kinsley

MY BLOG!

For us it's all about the baby steps. Sometimes we do better than others but we can't seem to go for to long feeling deprived. I found out that in order to avoid that, I have to incorporate the changes slowly so it becomes part of our life.

Monday of this week we got rid of our second car. Now we only have a 1998 car but it represents 600$ more in our account per month. We thought a long time about this and when the time came we were more than ready.

We still have to work on lowering our grocery bill and our eating out. We are much better than we used to so I know we are getting there. I have to accept this is not perfect and that it's OK or else I get discouraged.

Last week I went shopping thinking I could resist buying anything. I just wanted to get out of the house and have a nice afternoon with my mother and aunt. It turned out I spent 53$ at the Children's Place and about 20$ for other various stuff. It made me realize that I'm not ready to just go along shopping and not be tempted to buy anything. It's still better for me to stay home so my money stays in my wallet. (Do I really have to mention that my kids need no more clothing !!)

We managed to put 313$ towards debt and 65$ in savings in June. This is good since we used to ofen spend more than we made in the month. This was with me making a very good salary then and now I'm a SAHM (since Feb 2007). So when I look at it we went a long way. We used to just have wants and fullfil them thinking we worked hard, made good money & therefore deserved it. It got us in debt eventhough we had good salaries. Now our perception of what is a want & what is a need changed drastically.

Well, this got me going, guess I feel like sharing this morning.
If you got this far, thanks for reading

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MARIE --- MOTHER OF TWO ANGELS (MOST OF THE TIME )