all "fun stuff"? Cable, internet, lessons for your kids.....stuff like that?

When we made out our budget the satellite just made it too tight so it was nixed. We thought that it would be hard but a year and a half later we don't really miss it. In fact I was looking at some deals for cable and/or satellite and dh said no!

We have small kids but know that we will limit what our kids our involved in - we don't want them to be so busy that we miss out on them.

Yes, we pay less than $10 a month for very slow internet!

So, no we didn't get rid of everything but you do need to make sure that your outgoing is less than your incoming!

We are following Dave's plan (still brand new to us), but we decided we don't need to be fully "Gazelle Intense", we are fortunate to be in a position that doesn't require us to get rid of all that fun stuff, we dont' struggle day to day, so nothing has gotten nixed. However, all the fun stuff we have, isn't that costly anyway. If you go "GI" you should probably get rid of it all for a little while.

We do Dave Ramsey's plan and we have a $38 per month cable plan and $19 internet. Dh would never do without his ESPN!

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Proverbs 31 wannabe

Pretty much depends on how intense you are, like chopey mentioned! If you want (or need) to go all out and getter done, you will stop it all! At that point you just keep reminding yourself "IF YOU WILL LIVE LIKE NO ONE ELSE, LATER YOU CAN LIVE LIKE NO ONE ELSE!" But, if you can work out your budget to include these things and still get out of debt in a reasonable amout of time (say 2 years) then you can keep them.

Of course, keep in mind, the more you get rid of, the more cash you'll have to go toward your debt. Dave's whole idea behind doing without these things, is to give you the motivation to get your debt paid off faster so you can start them back up again!!! If you have motivation problems, you might want to cut back, maybe give yourself a goal, for each say $2000 you pay off, you can start up one "fun" thing you've been doing without! That would give ME motivation!!!

We are fortunate enough to not HAVE to be "gazelle intense"! If we were, I'm betting we could pay off the debt in half the time, but since DH has not read the book yet, I can't MAKE him get intense! BUT, that said, I've heard MANY people say that the thought of getting rid of the cable was HORRIBLE and they thought they could never do it, but after a week or two they realized they didn't miss it nearly as much as they thought they would! This is one I wouldn't mind trying! I think we'd be forced to do more things as a family - maybe play some board games or something! My boys would LOVE it! Maybe after football & hockey seasons are over... wait, there's still soccer... and re-runs (sorry "Classics")! This is one we'll probably NEVER go without!!

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I guess it all depends on what you consider fun stuff.

If you enjoy going to the park with your kids or playing board games (like someone mentionned) you do not have to get rid of it.

I believe it's all a question of what is important to your family and what are your values.

For me, since I'm a SAHM I really want to have internet but we do not have cable or any satelite dish. I still feel like we do alot of fun stuff has a family.

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Marie - SAHM of DS Benjamin (april 2004) and DD Rose (march 2006).

We had talked about getting rid of cable but my dh is a die-hard sports fan and cannot do without his sport channels. So I live for my computer, he lives for his sports -- guess we cannot comprise there.
But in January, when our cell phone contract is up, we are going to look into getting rid of our landline and just use the cell phone - that will save an additional $50 a month to go towards paying down debt.
I have also been paying attention to every penny spent and doing a lot more online surveys and stuff where you are paid cash for them -- helping to pay it off sooner!!!

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MyHotComments

Not forever, just until the consumer debt is gone and your emergency fund is up and running. But yes, to be gazelle intense the extras need to go. There are lots and lots of free fun things to do. We've done his plan and it works! But the more intense it is, the fast it will happen and the more motivating it will be.

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i think it depends household to household. if you are on "fumes" and you are close to loosing a house, being forclosed on, ya know situations like that, then yes go bare bones.

for us, when we finally looked at about 5mos of where our money was going, we pinpointed it to the atm, needless spending at stores and food (too much grocery shopping and eating out) by being serious with those areas, the other stuff wasnt as critical.

my name is natasha some call me tasha.. my husband and I are in a bit of debt. I am trying to set up a budget for us. any thoughts on getting one started. it all seems so overwhelming. I want to make one that we would live by. God is amazing and my goal is to honor Him with the blessing He gave. Thanks