This sounds like a silly question as most of you probably put all you can toward debt to get rid of it faster. But for those of you w/ a stubborn dh or so might know what I mean. I love to pay extra towards bills, he likes to spend it. We have about 300 or so extra a mo. since I started working part time. We are doing auto. w/ drawals to savings weekly. After this month (paying a settlement, dentist, house taxes), I want to crack down and really pay off our debt, not just put an extra $5 toward this or that. My dh likes to be able to go out to eat if we want, but a new tool (toy)lol, buy stuff for house repairs. When I write up a budget and say ok, you have $15/ wk for snacks at gas station, paper, whatever he's ok w/ it but when he runs out he goes for the debit card! What's the point of setting an amount if he totally ignores the budget!? Also, I'm to blame I guess. I set an amt. for dining out each mo. and when we do go out, we pay w/ debit card and totally ignore if we've gone over the budget. This happens a lot when we go out w/ friends (I'm so desperate to go out w/ other adults by the end of the week)lol. Do you have any suggestions? I probably just need to give dh and myself a good swift kick in the pants, so to speak.

My hubby knows he cannot use the debit card without us talking about it. He knows we are on a strict budget to get the debt (credit card) paid off. Our credit card monthly payment amount is only like $250 but I pay $500 and usually extra. But we are also aware of special things happening in a certain month or so that we might need extra cash for.
My hubby likes to play poker and he uses his winnings from that for his spending cash and to continue playing cards!

We put what we can afford towards extra debt (I also try and pay at least $10 more to wards the minimum on my lowest debts in addition).
A typical month would be 100 + the minimum towards my highest interest debt (which was also my highest balance when I started)
the min+$10 to wards the next and so on and so on.
After debt 1 is paid I take that $100+ the minimum (So in my case it was $150 and put the $150 towards the NEXT debt) resulting in a decent snowball.

If we don't have the extra some months maybe just the minimum goes to the other debts and I try and get as much as possible to wards the biggest one...even if it means making 2 payments (1 from each paycheck)



As far as th DH goes...I sat him down and showed it to him on paper. It worked for awhile then his buddies go out to lunch and sometimes it's okay (He is in cable and always on the road) But when it starts adding up it needs to stop (ESPECIALLY when he doesn't tell me what the amount was and i find out by looking at the checking account so I can reconcile)...That is the first time I took drastic measures.

I took away his credit and debit cards. I gave him $25 and said it had to last a week. He only spent $10 of it. So we continued on in that pattern for a few weeks and he got his debit card back (NOT the credit cards, those are ALL in a drawer). When he slipped up and it happened again, I took it again.

Yes it sounds like I am treating him like a child but guess what? It works! That was 3 years ago and now he is as involved in the budget as I am

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This is a great idea. My debts are: credit card, student loan and then house. We pay the most on the credit card and then the minimum payment required on the student loan and house. So would you think I should do $10 extra on both the student loan & mortgage?

If you can spare it, I would. I saw an article somewhere (If i find it I'll let you know) and it showed just how much a little $10 a month extra can knock off and it was pretty amazing.Just make sure if you pay it to your mortgage company specify that it go towards principle, my mom wanted to pay extra on her mortgage and called to see if she could just include it with her payment and the rep told her to specify it towards principle, so she sends 2 payments when she wants to send extra.

Done hijacking

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Only use cash, and when it's gone for the month it's gone!

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SAHM to MacKenzie 09/10/03, Brooke 09/21/05, KayLynn 04/23/08 and WIFE to Fred 6 years

I don't Like th Cash Method too Much - That Never Worked For Me.

What I Did was Open an ING Electric Orange account - and Have it Designated as Groceries, eating out ,Small Home Repairs or needs , Coffee Money Etc- Basically anything that is Not A Very high Set Monthly Bill Can come out Of ING. I Don't Really do a Hard Core Budget , I Just Put Our Normal Amount spent on Groceries AND I added a Few Hundred - I Divide that Amount By 2 ( Paychecks ) and that Amount Gets Direct deposited.
There are No Fees and There is interest - so It Works out good!

Plus This FORCES me To Make the Money stretch.... I Have to use Coupons OR I Have to Forgo My Coffee.
We can't Get A Pizza Friday night if DH Has to Run out To Lowes and Spends 30 Bucks.

This works so Well for us Because This Way , Its not like , " Oops I Spent too much on Groceries , Now the Phone Bill will wait..." Or The ever so Annoying , Check Bouncing Due to Over Use Of The debit Card.

When we were actively paying off debt, we put $1000 extra (plus the $450 payment) a month on our car payment. It was paid off quickly, but then my car obsessed husband went out and got a new car. Very frustrating.

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Vicki
Mama to Princess, 5 and Wild Thing, 3
Progress Since 1/6/09:

I have mixed feelings about how much *extra* to put towards debt!!

I guess that we do not put *extra* money we get toward debt until our savings/ emergency fund is where it needs to be.
For example we got a nice 3K refund for our income tax, we had used some emergency fund in the past 6 months for insurance deductables and a new washer and dryer, so we replenish that first and keep emergency fund at 3K and make sure our savings is at 5K at all times, becuase I feel like if something BIG happens and I used ALL MY EXTRA to pay down debt then we will just get in more debt, and it will be a vicious cycle, our debt right now is car payments and student loans, we pay 20-100 extra on the cars when we can, but for whatever reason I am in no hurry with my student loans, maybe I am dumb!

I don't ever pay interest towards car loans, I only do it towards my mortgage. I save up at least 15% (per month) of the mortgage pymt all year so at the beginning of the year we will pay it in a lump sum. I think its better all together than in the biweekly installments. I like paying off my cc at the end of each month and save the rest.

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*Jai guru deva om*
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